User:Amn73/sandboxannotatedbib

Annotated bibliography

Leung, Brenda MY et al. “Prenatal Micronutrient Supplementation and Postpartum Depressive Symptoms in a Pregnancy Cohort.” BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 13 (2013): 2. PMC. Web. 4 Apr. 2018. Popa, Alina D et al. “Nutritional Knowledge as a Determinant of Vitamin and Mineral Supplementation during Pregnancy.” BMC Public Health 13 (2013): 1105. PMC. Web. 4 Apr. 2018. Hofmeyr GJ, Manyame S''. Calcium supplementation commencing before or early in pregnancy, or food fortification with calcium, for preventing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.'' Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2017, Issue 9. Art. No.: CD011192. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011192.pub2. Antonysunil Adaikalakoteswari, Manu Vatish, Mohammad Tauqeer Alam, Sascha Ott, Sudhesh Kumar, Ponnusamy Saravanan; Low Vitamin B12 in Pregnancy Is Associated With Adipose-Derived Circulating miRs Targeting PPARγ and Insulin Resistance, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 102, Issue 11, 1 November 2017, Pages 4200–4209
 * The researchers studied the health outcomes of the effects of prenatal vitamins on pregnant women since there is a lot of ambiguity. They gave one cohort of women vitamins and measured for depression during pregnancy and postpartum by using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, which found that women who consume micronutrients scored higher on depressive symptoms.
 * I appreciated how the researchers acknowledged that there are multiple components that contribute to PPD, such as stress level, partner support, financial situation, etc. PPD is a multi-faceted issue that effects every part of one's life. The authors cautioned about the micronutrient selenium, but did not go into much detail on why. In addition, during each visit the pregnant women had to report their vitamin intake, which may discourage or sadden women who forgot to take them and may feel subsequent guilt for their child. This may have skewed the results.
 * I enjoyed this article because I can apply it to one of the controversies in intaking prenatal vitamins and the future cautions we should take to prevent PDD. The chart where they measured the SES of the pregnant women and their depressive symptoms did not really convince me - since I know that PPD cuts across all cultures, ages, etc. However, the lack of financial resources is a stressor that perpetuates PPD. Low SES does not solely cause PPD.
 * The researchers focused on the effects of folic acid, iron, and multivitamin supplements in Romania, in addition to looking at other factors that could perpetuate PPD. Their sample size was 400 women and they used self-reports as their way to assess the knowledge that these women had about vitamins. The findings were that age, marital status, level of education, and low fetal gestational age were positively correlated with nutrient intake (Popa et al, 2013).
 * Of course, there are always issues with self-reports. Perhaps the researchers word choice or translations could have confused certain women. Table 2 was very clear and easy to understand. The data was well organized and clearly showed the participants, the results, and the p-values.
 * I could certainly apply this to my paper since nutritional knowledge is so crucial during pregnancy. There can be serious implications when you eat the wrong thing - such as deli meats, raw fish, etc. Again, we see here that partner support is another factor that determines nutritional intake and knowledge, which may prevent or lower the risk of PPD.
 * The researchers wanted to test whether the timing of intaking calcium decreased/increased or had no effect at all in the development of preeclampsia. The also measured if the results of health outcomes for mother and child. The used two groups to test their findings - either gave the women calcium supplements of food fortification. Their findings were quite ambiguous. There was no data to suggest a correlation between calcium supplementation and child outcomes.
 * The researchers were trying to many things at the same time, in my opinion. They could have just focused on early calcium supplementation and collected stronger evidence. The sample size was quite small (only 60 women). Most of their data, if not all, was inconclusive.
 * I probably would use this paper to show how little we know about micronutrient supplementation for prenatal outcomes. There are many articles that contradict each other or simply have very weak data. In 50 years, hopefully we'll have a better idea on what to give pregnant women....
 * The authors wanted to see if low B12 levels altered "epigenetic regulation.... and adverse metabolic phenotype" (Antonysunil et al., 2017). They collected blood samples from pregnant women to analyze the preadipose cell line. They wanted to test if certain adipose activity had a role in leading to obesity, which it did.
 * The physiological nature of the article was well formatted for someone who understands and studies Vitamin B12 to that level. Figure 1 was not easy to follow. It could have been outlined in a simpler, neater fashion. They were also studying gene expression, adipose cells, miRs to see how these variables could lead to obesity in pregnancy.
 * This article contains a lot of nutritional science that I'm not familiar with. While the authors did explain their methodology very well, I'm not confident I can follow and understand their way of testing the correlation between Vitamin B12 and obesity in pregnancy. Perhaps Professor Levitsky could help me with this.