Reducing overweight and obesity in Australian men

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?