Data Management

Answer

Purpose/Background; 

• Obesity is a multifaceted non-communicable disease and large largely preventable disease affecting nearly 30% of the world population today (Ng, et al., 2013). Research evidence suggests that more people worldwide will be obese by the year 2030. In the USA. more than 85% of the adult population will be obese by 2030, based upon secular projections (Hruby & Hu, 2015). Obesity is associated with other debilitating conditions such as depression, disability and cardiovascular diseases as well as other negative implications (Ng et al., 2013). There is need to increase awareness about this disease among the adult population, as a starting point towards prevention. The purpose of this survey is to assess the level of awareness among the students in the class, about the crisis of obesity in the United States. The ultimate goal of this project is to create obesity awareness in the general population in an effort to reduce the incidence of the disease and its related illnesses.

Identify Target Population

• The target population refers to the entire group of individuals of objects to which researchers are interested in generalizing the conclusions of the research (Vining, 2014). In this study, the target population is the adult population of the United States.

List Eligibility Criteria;

• The eligibility criteria for a given study refer to the guidelines for who can and who cannot participate in a study (Vining, 2014). To be eligible to participate as a respondent in this study, one has to a student taking this particular course.

Classify sampling plan.

• The sampling plan use was purposive sampling. This is a non-probability sampling plan where participants are chosen based on their characteristics in relation to the study, but mostly for convenience (Gordis, 2013). In the case of this study, the classmates were chosen to participate for learning purposes and for the convenience.

Determine survey sample size.

• The sample size refers to the total number of people who have been identified through sampling or otherwise, to be respondents in a research study. The sample size is usually determined before sampling is done. In random sampling, the size can be worked out mathematically and takes into consideration issues of power and, population size and confidence level (Partini & Ferreira, 2015). The number of students who participated in the survey was twenty three. When everyone in the sample participates in the study, the response rate is considered 100% (Gordis, 2013). Frequently the response rate is lower than 100%.

Explain any limitations and sampling bias.

• This study had a few limitations: Although the study design was appropriate for the objective of assessing level of awareness, it was limited in the sense that the participants of the study were not representative of the study population. The conclusions made from it cannot be generalized to the adult population of the United States. By having only one class of students participating in this study, both external and internal validity was undermined due to selection bias and sampling bias (Pandis, 2014) due to the fact that not everyone in the study population had an equal chance of participating.

Briefly explain procedure anonymity and confidentiality, informed consent, for protecting survey participants and summarize methods employed to preserve the integrity of the data set.

Anonymity for data collected means that either no participant identifying information is collected during data collection, or there is no way of linking participants to the data they gave (https://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php). In this survey, anonymity was preserved by not collecting any identifying information from the students. Confidentiality entails ensuring that all information collected from participants is not shared with anyone outside the project so that no connection between responses and individual respondents can be made (https://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php). Confidentiality for this survey was upheld by first making a pledge with the respondent that all data they give will not be linked to them and also by preserving the integrity of the data set through restricted entry. Only the student has entry rights to handle the data. Entry to the survey was login and password protected.

Employ SPSS to perform statistical analysis for each electronic survey question.  For each survey question: 

• Perform two (2) descriptive statistical analysis test,
• Create two (2) different types of graphs (bar chart, scatter plot, pie chart).

Knowledge

Provide a brief breakdown analysis of each electronic survey question.  Interpret the data and translate the breakdown of the questions into readable form- explain the WHY behind the results such as relationships and themes found in the responses, or gaps identified.  

Survey question 1, 2 and 7: These questions determined the demographic characteristics of the respondents

The sample comprised of more females and mostly aged 25-44. These are already working students, now undertaking their Master’s Degree program. Working adults who have presumably completed their bachelor’s degree programs fall in this age group. Historically more females undertake nursing programs, which may explain why there are more females in this class.  Their weight is normally distributed. The information on weight in itself may be useful only in providing a description of the sample. It would have been more useful if data on height was collected, in which case it would have been possible to compute mean BMI of these students, and determine the status ae regards obesity.

Survey question 3, 4, 5 and 6: These questions measured knowledge/awareness about obesity

Question 3

Consistent with other literature on obesity (Ng, et. al., 2013; Hrubi & Hu, 2015), respondents were able to identify genetic predisposition, laziness, medical conditions and lack of exercise as main causes of obesity, an indication of a high level of awareness. A few of them though indicated that healthy eating habits and daily exercise are behaviors that cause obesity. This shows that while the awareness may be high, there are still gaps in knowledge and interventions for creating awareness need to target these gaps.

Question 4

Nearly all students identified obesity as a likely cause of heart disease. Other researchers have also reported an association between these two variables (Ng, et. al., 2013; Hrubi & Hu, 2015). This finding indicated a high level of awareness regarding consequences of obesity, and is consistent with the finding on question three.

Question 5

The results from this question suggest neutrality about children being obese or overweight. It is an interesting finding as it is inconsistent with the high level of awareness regarding obesity that the respondents have. From the demographic profile, many of these students are aged between 25 and 34, working and studying. It is possible that many of them do not have children of their own, and childhood obesity is not one of their preoccupations.

Question 6

The findings from this question are consistent with those from question three and four, and suggest a high level of knowledge and awareness regarding causes of obesity.

Survey question 8:

This question assessed what respondents thought about how daily exercise related to obesity. Most considered thirty minutes as sufficient for exercise, which is consistent with what other studies have indicated (Hrubi & Hu, 2015), that thirty minutes of daily exercise is important in preventing obesity.

Wisdom

Electronic surveys can be relied upon to generate meaningful data if the questions are formulated in a way that they can generate the data that is needed. They are easy to administer and complete in a very short amount of time. However, electronic surveys are usually prone to low response rate, which undermines external validity of data (Gordis, 2013). They are also subjective since they are self-administered. For this particular survey, the response rate was 100% because it was a requirement for the students. The data generated was of good quality as it was consisted with those from literature (Gordis, 2014). There were no missing data in this survey. If there were, they would be treated as such during analysis. To improve on the design of the survey, a title page should be included and on the information to the respondent, it would be useful to state how long the data would be kept and who would have access to it. Information for the respondent telling them that they were free to stop the survey at any time and any possible risks for them should be included. Most of the survey question tested awareness regarding obesity in a very narrow sense and were very subjective. Inclusion of more questions to assess awareness would have yielded better data. It may be necessary in future to design both negative and positive questions for in likert scales to get more objective data. It would be necessary to collect more information on awareness of prevention strategies and treatment.