Evaluating Dietary Risk Factors | Depressed Adult Canadians

Running head: COMPREHENSIVE QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH PRODUCT 1
Comprehensive Quantitative Research Product
Name of Student
Institutional Affiliation

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Comprehensive Quantitative Research Product
Clinical evidence has pointed out the existing interaction between nutrition and mental
health (Lessale et al., 2019). The current evidence on depression and anxiety episodes and how
nutrition-based interventions could be used to reduce risk factors calls for further assessment to
enhance the reliability and validity of this conceptualization (Stahl et al., 2014). At the same
time, dietary risk factors have paved the way for mental health complications across different age
brackets. In this period of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for people to understand
dietary risk factors as well as dietary intake and how they relate to mental health. Scholars have
also focused on nutrition-based interventions to improve mental health outcomes (Quirk et al.,
2013). This excerpt presents a research framework that could be used to conduct a quantitative
assessment of dietary risk factors and dietary intake among depressed adult Canadians and the
use of nootropics to improve mental health outcomes during this period of COVID-19 pandemic.
Research Question and Objectives
The purpose of this proposed study is to evaluate the dietary risk factors and dietary
intake among depressed adult Canadians. The analysis will also focus on the use of nootropics to
improve mental health outcomes among this population. In this case, the study will focus on both
the nutrition-based risks and the effectiveness of nootropics in line with the expected positive
mental health outcomes during this period of the spread of coronavirus. In this case, the
following research questions are appropriate.
Question One
What is the relationship between dietary risk factors and dietary intake among depressed
adult Canadians?

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Question Two
What is the relationship between the use of nootropics and mental health outcomes
among depressed adult Canadians?
The hypotheses relating to the two questions are as follows.
i. Question One
H1: There is a significant relationship between dietary risk factors and dietary intake
among depressed adult Canadians
HO: There is no significant relationship between dietary risk factors and dietary
intake among depressed adult Canadians
ii. Question Two
H1: There is a significant relationship between the use of nootropics and mental
health outcomes among depressed adult Canadians
H0: There is no significant relationship between the use of nootropics and mental
health outcomes among depressed adult Canadians
Research Methodology and Justification
The study will be a quantitative analysis where the researcher will focus on numerical
and statistical assessments. The quantitative methodology involves a systematic approach to the
investigation of a phenomenon by focusing on the existing relationships and predictions from the
gathered data using comprehensive mathematical, statistical, or computational techniques
(Jackson & Verberg, 2007). The use of quantitative methodology is appropriate for this study
because the research question seeks to establish a relationship between dietary risk factors and

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dietary intake that impact mental health. Subsequently, as depicted in the research question, there
is an assessment of how the use of nootropics improves mental health outcomes.
In this case, the researcher will use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to address the
research question. RCT is a quantitative research design that compares the outcomes of an
experimental group and a control group to conclude on the variable under investigation (Reith et
al., 2013). Therefore, in this proposed study, data will be obtained from two groups assigned
from a randomly selected sample. The first set of data will involve the dietary intake patterns and
the subsequent dietary risk factors, which will come from both the control and experimental
group. The second set of data will come from the experimental group and will depict the use of
nootropics and the outcome in terms of improved cognitive performance over a specific period.
The third set of data will come from the control group to determine whether there were any
significant changes in cognitive performance without the use of nootropics.
The study will involve 300 randomly selected adult Canadians diagnosed with
depression. This sample size is reasonable because it is not too small or too big for an RCT that
will involve segregating the participants into two groups. The data will be collected using
questionnaires designed with responses based on the five-point Likert scale. The question will
target dietary intake partners as well as the outcomes as experienced by the respondents. The use
of questionnaires is advantageous because it enables the researcher to gather multidimensional
data from a large sample within a short period.
Bivariate Statistical Analytic Test to be Conducted
In quantitative studies, several statistical tests are conducted (Jackson & Verberg, 2007).
In RCT, the tests are focused on the assessment of the existing variation between the control and