Research in neonatology: need for introspection

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of neonatal research published in major Indian journals. Four indexed Indian journals were scanned for topics pertaining to neonatology and the manuscripts were evaluated for the most important morbidity studied and its relevance to the national need. The analytical studies were evaluated for their quality of research methodology. Approximately 12% studies were pertaining to neonates and only one third of them were investigative in nature. Less than 20% studies were of national interest and only 5% of the total studies were community based. Although aims of the studies were clearly defined in 81%, sample size estimation was done in only 11%, blinding in 15% and one or more category of bias was seen in 84% of the studies. We conclude that there is an urgent need for interventional and community based studies in neonatology, on issues of national interest. A need was felt for improvement in the quality of research in neonatology with special emphasis on training in clinical epidemiology.