Relationship between physical activity and mental health in Canadian adolescents

Running head: CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF PAPER
Critical appraisal of paper
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

Table of Contents
Task A:.............................................................................................................................................3
Task C:.............................................................................................................................................4
Task D:.............................................................................................................................................6

Task A:
I. In Bélair et al. (2018), the study design of the article was cross-sectional study.
As discussed by the level of evidence framework, the study is rated as a level four of
evidence (Barton et a. 2015). By using anxiety scores and level of depression, the study defined
the association between physical activity and mental health. In Bélair et al. (2018), the odds of
moderate to severe symptoms of depression as well as depression were compared with
respondents having no symptoms.
II. measurement scales were used by researchers for the responses such as “ I am too fearful
or nervous” were respondent rate for assessing the effectiveness of these statements described
the respondents by using statements such as never or not true’, ‘sometimes or somewhat true’ or
‘often or very true’ the researcher also used Cronbach alpha scales for measurement.
III. The interval measurement scale was used as the measurement scale used for two different
measurements such as physically active and physically inactive. The interval measurement scale
is a numerical scale for analyzing orders as well as the exact difference between values. The
Rationale behind choosing this scale is that it considered distance as meaning full data and for
this case, the measurements were done considering time gaps (Neuman 2016). Therefore,
interval type of the study was appropriate for measurement.
IV. The odds ratio of 1.85 defined as the measurement for the occurrence of depression. For
the physically inactive group the odd chance is 1.85 for developing depression and anxiety
amongst individuals with no physical activity the 95% confidence limit (1.42 to 2.41) suggested
that 95% of the sample would be included in the parametric mean every time when study would
replicate with the similar randomly selected population for the confidence interval.