Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68008
THE RESULTS SECTION By getting more familiar with the statistics commonly used in research studies, you'll grow more comfortable with the conventions articles use to present study outcomes. In a well-written research article, the groundwork for the Results section was laid in the Introduction and Methods sections—the researcher explained what outcomes the team was looking for, why they were looking for them, and how they would detect them. Those outcomes are reported in the Results section. In the Results section, the researchers report their results without interpretation. Later on, in the Discussion section, they will discuss their interpretation of those results and their meaning—but in the Results section itself, they simply lay out those results, uninterpreted, for everyone else to see and draw their own conclusions. We are now far enough along in the discussion of massage research that you will see some things you can already recognize from previous articles and there will be other things we have not yet discussed. I'll provide some tips to help illustrate unfamiliar concepts, without presenting them in as much detail as the essential concepts. However, when reading articles on your own without additional guidance, a good strategy is to follow as much of the article as you can understand, without sweating the stuff you haven't been exposed to yet. Get what you can from the articles, and trust that you are laying the foundation for more learning. Be patient with your learning process! Don't let the parts you are not yet familiar with discourage you. REPORTING STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN THE RESULTS SECTION Our first example looks at a study by Hernandez-Reif et al. on the effects of massage on mood and emotion in children with cystic fibrosis and their parents. In cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic lung disease, mucus, fluid secretions, and infections build up and block the airways of affected children. In addition to the physical effects of the disease, its serious implications for continued quality of life for the affected child can create a state of chronic stress for caregivers. visit massageandbodywork.com to access your digital magazine 125