Reducing overweight and obesity in Australian men

This document discusses the study design, rationale, sampling approach, measurement scales, and findings of a study on reducing overweight and obesity in Australian men. It also includes a brief report synthesizing the findings from three studies and a recommendation for a future quantitative research project.

HBS108 Health Information and Data: Assignment 2
Reducing overweight and obesity in Australian men
Word Count: 1288 words

TASK A
The following questions are based on the article by Ashton et al. (2017).
Q1(a) What is the study design?
The study design is the cross-sectional online survey, which is considered as the most
convenient method for the target respondents. According to researchers, A cross-sectional
survey are used for collecting the data to make interpretations about a population of interest
(universe) at one point in time. A study conducted by Powell et al (2011) has also identified
that Cross-sectional surveys can be considered as the snapshots of the populations, about
whom the researcher want to explore in context of population behaviour, motivations,
preferences and perceptions.
Q1(b) What was the rationale for this study?
The rationale of the study is based on the problem of young men being overweight, as these
young men have failed to meet the recommendations for the healthy diet and physical
activity. Munt, Partridge, and Allman‐Farinelli, (2017) have identified that the problem of
obesity is increasing among the Australian young men due to noncompliance of healthy
eating and healthy living. However, the perception of the young men regarding the physical
activity and making healthy food choices have not been effectively known. A study
conducted by Liu et al (2012) has also identified that lack of healthy lifestyle and intake of
unhealthy food during the early adulthood can significantly affect the health outcomes in the
late adulthood. The problem can also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and other
co-morbidities. Therefore, Ashton et al (2017) conducted a cross sectional survey to
understand the motivations and barriers that young men face to healthy eating and physical
activity.
Q1(c) What was the sampling approach used in this study? What is an important
limitation of the approach to sampling in this study?
This study has employed the purposive sampling technique and the participants have been
recruited through the flyers, which were distributed in the local university, sports clubs and
also technical colleges. The recruitment of the young men was also done through the
advertisement on the online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Recruitment was also
done through the local newspaper and local and state-wide radio stations. One of the
significant limitations of the purposive sampling is that it can be significantly exposed to

research biases. This kind of sampling is based on the judgement of the researcher and can be
affected by the personal values of researchers. Purposive sampling in the research also leads
to be judgemental and subjective that can affect the quality of findings judgement made by
the researcher can be ill-conceived.
Q1(d) The researchers measured alcohol consumption. To measure ‘at risk’ drinking
they asked: ‘On a day that you drink alcohol, how many standard drinks do you usually
have?’ What type of measurement scale was used?
The study has used the alcohol consumption measure that specifically includes the items,
such as alcohol drinking status, average volume of consumption, and frequency and volume
of the alcohol (Jester et al, 2015). Therefore, this research focused on measuring expectancies
of alcohol consumption.
Q1(e) What type of measurement scale was income measured on?
For the measurement of the income, the wage and salary earner statistics provided by the
Australian bureau of statistics have been used.
TASK B
Q2(a) What was the study aim? What knowledge ‘gap’ did the study address?
The main aim of this study was to explore the experience of the Baby Boomer men (born
between 1946 and 1964) towards the process of weight management and to use this
information obtained from men for developing the targeted interventions and messages for
the target population.
Q2(b) What data collection methods were used?
The methods that this study employed for the data collection process involved the use of the
qualitative semi-structured interview of the 20 baby boomer men. convenience sampling was
the method used for recruitment of participants of the study (Wirth et al, 2014). The
convenience sample of the 211 Baby Boomer men were obtained, who had earlier had
participated in the weight management programs or have been surveyed about the weight
management strategies.
Q2(c) How was the final sample size determined and why?

For determining the appropriate sample size researcher had taken the consent of the
participants to participate in the study. Therefore, the final sample size was determined until
the point of data saturation was identified by the researcher. The data saturation was achieved
on the 20 participants that fulfilled the requirement of the mean age, Body Mass Index (BMI)
and other demographic information.
Q2(d) Why is the data collection method appropriate for addressing the study aim?
Studies have identified that qualitative research design is suitable, if the researcher want to
explore a new perspective or want to develop a new theory or hypothesis (Jamshed, 2014).
Another significant aspect of this data collection method is that semi-structured interviews
are helpful in conducting an in-depth analysis of the perspective and perception of the
participants. Through the open-ended question, participants can provide a detailed
perspective towards the problem, and helps the researcher to collect high quality objective
data (Kallio et al, 2016).
Q2(e) The study was based on interviews within the United States’ context. Based on the
findings, and given your knowledge of qualitative study designs, design a qualitative
study for the Australian context. The proposed study should try to overcome limitations
of the current study. Please provide the research question, type of qualitative study
design, the sampling methods including recruitment, the data collection methods and
how you would analyse the data. Please justify each choice in a few words.
Research Question: What has been your perception and experience towards the weight loss
program that you participated in?
Qualitative study design: this study will use the qualitative narrative research design that
will be focused on conducting the in-depth interview of the participants. The advantages of
the narrative interviews is that they can help the researcher to understand the experience,
behaviour and perception of people (Muylaert et al, 2014). According to Cortazzi (2014),
narrative interviews are often unstructured with specific feature. Such interviews help the
researcher to find the important themes to be analysed.
Sampling: Purposive or purposeful sampling will you used for this research study. This
sampling technique allows the researcher to recruit the participants according to the pre-
determined criteria. Although, this kind of sampling may also be considered as judgement

sampling and may have some biases. However, purposive sampling is the most appropriate
manner of identifying the information rich cases (Lopez and Whitehead, 2013). For example,
the study conducted by Elmir et al (2010) use the purposive sampling for understanding the
living experience of women with traumatic birth. Recruitment of the participants will be done
through online advertisement and conducting an initial survey of their demographics.
Data collection and Analysis: Data collection will be done by conducted through the semi-
structured interview and the data will be analysed on the basis of identification of different
themes from the interview.
TASK C
The following questions are based on the article by Hunt et al. (2014).
Q3(a) Identify the study design. Where does this study design fit in the hierarchy of
evidence?
The study design is the two-group, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial. This kind of study
design are the highest position in hierarchy.
Q3(b) What was the independent variable in this study? What was the main dependent
variable?
Independent variable is the weight loss programme in the community setting.
Q3(c) Was the intervention successful? Briefly explain your answer by summarising, in
your own words, the main study findings (50 words max.).
The intervention was successful, as it helped in identifying the generalisability of findings.
The intervention was also easily to be delivered and it was also easy to identify the
appropriate participants for the study.
Q3(d) Based on this design, are the findings likely to have good internal validity? Briefly
explain the reasons for your answer.
The internal validity of the study is likely to be high because of the study design being a
randomised control trial. This design helps in reducing the research biases and helps in
collecting the high quality data.

Q3(e) Based on the location and the demographic characteristics of the study sample, is
this study likely to have good external validity? Briefly explain the reasons for your
answer.
On the basis of the location and the demographic characteristics of the study sample, the
study has the good external validity, as these characteristics maintain the quality of the
evidences gathered.
TASK D – CONCLUSION
Q4(a) Write a brief report that synthesises the findings from the three studies in a way
that clearly communicates the most important issues
The findings of the study informed that weight loss programme can be significantly
beneficial for the men to reduce weight and to adopt a healthy lifestyle. The weight loss
programme influences the perception and health behaviour of the individuals and motivate
them to lose weight. The common barrier to unhealthy eating habits was the lack of access to
healthy food. However, it was identified that family and social support can be effective in
accessing the healthy food. The studies informed that promotion of the healthy lifestyle can
be significant in improving the health behaviour among men.
Q4(b) Based on your answer to Q4(a) develop a recommendation for a future
quantitative research project based on the gaps that you see. This must be relevant for
dealing with men’s overweight and obesity within and Australian context. You must:
o research question or hypothesis: Personal health behaviour can be a significant barrier to
adopt healthy lifestyle.
o study design: Study will conduct a qualitative systematic review of literature. The
systematic review of literature will help in identifying the various themes and barriers that
can affect health behaviour of individuals. The strength of this study would be that it will
help in developing the evidence-based knowledge, while limitation would be that maintaining
the rigour can be significant challenge.
o sampling methods: Online database search with the help of keywords.
o independent and dependent variables and how they would be measured: no
independent and dependent variables in systematic reviews

o Identify the statistical techniques that would be important and critical values for
these: no statistical technique will be required.

References
Ashton, LM, Hutchesson, MJ, Rollo, ME, Morgan, PJ & Collins, CE 2017, ‘Motivators and
Barriers to Engaging in Healthy Eating and Physical Activity’, American Journal of Men’s
Health, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 330–343.
Cortazzi, M. 2014, Narrative analysis, Routledge.
Elmir, R., Schmied, V., Wilkes, L. and Jackson, D., 2010, ‘Women’s perceptions and
experiences of a traumatic birth: a meta‐ethnography’, Journal of advanced nursing, 66(10),
pp.2142-2153.
Jamshed, S., 2014, ‘Qualitative research method-interviewing and observation’, Journal of
basic and clinical pharmacy, 5(4), p.87.
Jester, J.M., Wong, M.M., Cranford, J.A., Buu, A., Fitzgerald, H.E. and Zucker, R.A., 2015,
‘Alcohol expectancies in childhood: change with the onset of drinking and ability to predict
adolescent drunkenness and binge drinking’, Addiction, 110(1), pp.71-79.
Kallio, H., Pietilä, A.M., Johnson, M. and Kangasniemi, M., 2016, ‘Systematic
methodological review: developing a framework for a qualitative semi‐structured interview
guide’, Journal of advanced nursing, 72(12), pp.2954-2965.
Liu, K., Daviglus, M.L., Loria, C.M., Colangelo, L.A., Spring, B., Moller, A.C. and Lloyd-
Jones, D.M., 2012, ‘Healthy lifestyle through young adulthood and the presence of low
cardiovascular disease risk profile in middle age: the Coronary Artery Risk Development in
(Young) Adults (CARDIA) study’, Circulation, 125(8), pp.996-1004.
Lopez, V. and Whitehead, D., 2013, ‘Sampling data and data collection in qualitative
research’, Nursing and midwifery research: methods and appraisal for evidence-based
practice, pp.123-40.
Munt, A.E., Partridge, S.R. and Allman‐Farinelli, M., 2017, ‘The barriers and enablers of
healthy eating among young adults: a missing piece of the obesity puzzle: a scoping
review’, Obesity reviews, 18(1), pp.1-17.
Muylaert, C.J., Sarubbi Jr, V., Gallo, P.R., Neto, M.L.R. and Reis, A.O.A., 2014, ‘Narrative
interviews: an important resource in qualitative research’, Revista da Escola de Enfermagem
da USP, 48(spe2), pp.184-189.

Powell, J., Inglis, N., Ronnie, J. and Large, S., 2011, ‘The characteristics and motivations of
online health information seekers: cross-sectional survey and qualitative interview
study’, Journal of medical Internet research, 13(1), p.e20.
Hunt, K, Wyke, S, Gray, CM, Anderson, AS, Brady, A, Bunn, C, Donnan, PT, Fenwick, E,
Grieve, E, Leishman, J, Miller, E, Mutrie, N, Rauchhaus, P, White, A & Treweek, S 2014, ‘A
gender-sensitised weight loss and healthy living programme for overweight and obese men
delivered by Scottish Premier League football clubs (FFIT): a pragmatic randomised
controlled trial’, Lancet (London, England), vol. 383, no. 9924, pp. 1211–1221.
Wirth, CK, James, DCS, Fafard, M & Ochipa, K 2014, ‘Developing Weight Management
Messages and Interventions for Baby Boomer Men’, American Journal of Men’s Health, vol.
8, no. 3, pp. 258–266.