Assignment: Defining the Problem and Research Methods Essay

Assignment: Defining the Problem and Research Methods Essay

Assignment: Defining the Problem and Research Methods Essay

Schools represent an important environment that determines the health and wellbeing of children. Often, children learn most of their behaviors from the interactions they have with their peers and teachers. It therefore proves important that the opportunities presented to the children in school have a significant impact on their health, well-being, and human development. The existence of complex interactions among psychological, environmental, and sociocultural factors imply that the school environment plays a critical role in determining the behaviors that students display both in school and out of school environment (Liu, 2016). Studies have shown that besides schools acting as learning environment, they also act as sources of undesired social behaviors that can pose significant health related issues. These behaviors include alcohol and drug abuse, unhealthy eating habits, and social ills that increase the risk of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (Majid et al. 2015; Hinojosa et al. 2018). Consequently, these health risks increase the need for epidemiologic studies to determine the existence of relationships between exposures in schools with health problems affecting students and the ways in which they can be prevented.

The selected population health problem that is largely prevalent in most of the public and private primary schools is childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is a serious public health issue that has a high epidemic proportion in all regions globally (Garrido-Migue et al. 2019). According to Jagadesan et al. (2014), approximately 200 million school going children are considered as being obese or overweight. Obese children constitute about 40-50 million children in this population. Obesity among school going children is associated with significant health impacts. As shown by Garrido-Migue et al. (2019) in their research, it reduces the health-related quality of life of these children as well as social and health consequences. They include stigmatization, poor academic performance, bullying in school, and mental health disorders. Obesity among them is also attributed to some types of cancers, osteoarticular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and multiple risk factors related to the cardiovascular system (Garrido-Migue et al. 2019). The role of obesity in contributing to these health problems has seen it ranked as the fifth leading risk for deaths among children worldwide (Karki, Shrestha & Subedi, 2019).

The prevalence of obesity among school going children varies across states. In Nepal, Kark et al. (2019) found that of 575 students who participated in the research, 7.1% of them were obese while 18.6% were overweight. The research also showed that 10.6% of the males were obese while 2.4% of the female were obese. In Europe, a systematic review on the prevalence of obesity and overweight among children showed that the pooled prevalence of overweight was 17.9% while that of obesity was 5.3% (Garrido-Migue et al. 2019). In India, the prevalence of obesity and overweight was found to be higher in private schools when compared to public schools. The rate of hypertension was also significantly higher in private schools than in public schools (Jagadesan et al. 2014). In Ghana, the prevalence of obesity was found to be 16.4% with children from high socioeconomic status being at a higher risk when compared to those from low socioeconomic status (Adom et al. 2019). The prevalence rate of the problem in the US was found to be 17% in children aged between 2 and seven years between 2011 and 2014. The obesity rate among the youths between 2015 and 2016 was found to be 18.5% (Williams & Greene, 2018).

School going children are highly at a risk of obesity due to a number of factors. According to Garrido-Migue et al. (2019), the high rate of obesity among children is attributed to poor dietary habits among them. A change in dietary habits to the westernized eating habits has increased the risk of the problem in most states. This includes a high consumption of diets rich in fats, animal proteins, and low complex carbohydrates. The consequences include reduced use of energy and increased availability of palatable energy, hence, obesity (Garrido-Migue et al. 2019). There is also the evidence that most of the diets consumed by school going children have low vitamins, micronutrients, and minerals. There is also minimal engagement in active physical activity that reduces burnout of the calories. Other factors such as too much participation in activities that do not burn excess energy sources such as too much watching of the television increases the risk of obesity among them (Jagadesan et al. 2014). Therefore, there is an increased need for interventions that aim at eliminating the risk by raising awareness among those at risk and minimizing the health effects of obesity among the affected.

Research Question

Based on the severity of the problem, the researcher will aim to engage in a study answering the following question:

1. What factors contribute to the high prevalence rate of obesity among school going children in public primary schools in America?

Research hypothesis

The research will be guided by the following hypothesis

1. The socio-demographic factors of the school-going children have a significant impact on the development of obesity among them.

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Several epidemiological study designs can be utilized to investigate a health problem in a community. The designs assist

epidemiologists in understanding or assessing the existence of a relationship between exposure to a disease and its occurrence. The initial step in the process is the development of hypothesis and research question that would guide the whole process of research. However, the approach to investigating the phenomena will largely be guided by the adopted study design (Munnangi & Boktor, 2019).

The researcher of this research question intends to utilize cross sectional study design. Cross sectional design is a type of observational study where the researcher is interested in giving a snapshot of the characteristics of the study participants. The participants are not followed up for a period to determine the effect of the exposure. Instead, the researcher obtains data from them at a given period and place. The study participants are also selected based on whether they meet the developed inclusion and exclusion criteria or not. Often, cross sectional study designs are used to investigate the prevalence of a disease in a population, calculate odds ratio, and when undertaking population-based surveys (Setia, 2016).

The use of cross sectional study design in this investigation is associated with some benefits. Firstly, it can be conducted easily and faster. It also provides information on the prevalence of a public health issue. This information is important in the designing of a cohort study. The design is also important in allowing the planning, monitoring, as well as evaluation of public health issues. However, the design is associated with limitations that include the difficult it has in deriving causal relationship, prone to bias, and its inability to provide insight into the duration of exposure (Setia, 2016).

The participants for this research will be selected based on whether they meet the inclusion criteria or not. Questionnaires will be used for the acquisition of the needed data. They will be closed ended to allow for quantitative analysis of the obtained data. The questionnaires will be administered to the participants to obtain subjective data from them. Objective data will be obtained to determine their weight and height. This data will aid in the determination of whether the participants are obese or overweight. Questionnaires are preferred for this investigation due to a number of reasons. Firstly, it will allow for coverage of a wide range of data. The participants can be asked about different aspects that relate to the investigation in an objective manner. The use of questionnaires is also economical. The researcher only engages in minimal tasks such as designing, printing, and administering the questionnaires. Analysis of the obtained data is also easy when compared to other methods such as audio recording of data. There is also the aspect of data uniformity with the use of questionnaires. The participants are restricted in the range of questions asked and nature of their responses. The use of questionnaires is also easy when collecting data. This can be seen from the fact that they are easy to plan, develop, and administer to the study participants. Activities such as questionnaire development and administration do not need technical knowledge or skills. Other benefits associated with the use of questionnaires include the high rate of validity, flexibility, and anonymity with their use for data collection (Brace, 2008). Therefore, these benefits make the use of questionnaires for data collection the most desirable for this research.

Sections 1 and 2 of Major Assessment 7: Using an Epidemiological Approach to Critically Analyze a Population Health Problem

How do culture and environment influence health? What role does personality play in health outcomes? How do stressful life events influence disease? As a health care professional, you have most likely witnessed the influence of psychosocial factors on individual health. These factors also have a significant impact on population health. Chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease, as well as degenerative diseases, can be studied at the population level through the use of epidemiologic methods (Friis, 2014). The insights gained from this type of research can then positively impact health outcomes locally, nationally, and globally.

As you continue working on Assignment 2, which is due by Day 7 of this week, consider how psychosocial factors influence your population and population health issue.

To complete:

In 5–6 pages, write the following sections of your paper:

Section 1: The Problem

A brief outline of the environment you selected (i.e., home, workplace, school)
A summary of your selected population health problem in terms of person, place, and time, and the magnitude of the problem based on data from appropriate data resources (Reference the data resources you used.)
Research question/hypothesis
Section 2: Research Methods

The epidemiologic study design you would use to assess and address your population health problem
Assessment strategies (i.e., if you were conducting a case-control study, how would you select your cases and controls? Regarding the methods and tools you would use to make these selections, how is it convenient for you as the researcher or as the investigator to use this tool?)
Summary of the data collection activities (i.e., how you would collect data—online survey, paper/pen, mailing, etc.)

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Assignment: Defining the Problem and Research Methods Essay

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