Understanding Medical Articles:

A short, easy version

Words to understand before you start:

Medical Journals: Magazines for doctors and other health care people. They are technical, but sometimes they have information that people with TBI and their families need.
Abstract: a short summary or review of a medical or research article.

Have you ever wanted to read medical journals, and scientific magazines? Are you a little afraid? Here is some advice:

Medical articles are split into sections. These are the sections that you'll usually find:

Abstract
Introduction
Results
Discussion

Each of these four sections gives you a certain kind of information. You need to know how to read each section.

Abstract:

This is at the very beginning. It is short and it summarizes the whole article. At the end of the Abstract you will find a list of "Key Words." Read these first. They describe the main topics of the article. Make sure you understand these words. Look up the ones you don't know.

Then, go back and read the rest of the Abstract. Try to figure out:

what was studied?
who was studied?
how was the research done?
what did the researchers learn?

Does the article still seem relevant? Are the people who were studied kind of like you? If you are still interested, go on to the Introduction section.

Introduction:

This is one of the best parts of the article. It should tell you:

why this information is important
who it is important to
what is already known on the topic
what new information they hope to learn

Methods:

This section usually comes next. It should tell you:

more information about who participated in the research
how they were chosen
how the research was done
how the results were examined or analyzed

The Methods section can be hard to understand. Try this: just skim over the Methods section. What you already read in the Abstract should be enough to get by.

Results:

This section tells you what the authors found. There may be tables, graphs, and statistics. It can get complicated. Here is some more advice: skim over this section too. Then, go on to the Discussion section.

Discussion:

Here, the authors will help you make sense of the Results section. They will tell you what their findings really mean. They should also describe the limitations of their research. They will tell you about things that would have made the research even better or even more useful.

Some final advice:

If all this is too hard, here is a real shortcut: Read the Abstract. Then, read the Discussion. Lastly, go back and skim over the Introduction. That might be enough to get by.

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