HBS108 Assignment Task 1: Sourcing, Identifying and Evaluating Evidence

1HEALTH SCEINCES
HBS108 Assignment Task 1: Sourcing, Identifying and Evaluating Evidence
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Table of Contents
Answer 1....................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2....................................................................................................................................2
Answer 3....................................................................................................................................3
Answer 4....................................................................................................................................4
Answer 5....................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................7

2HEALTH SCEINCES
Answer 1
i. The National Health Survey (NHS) recruited a sample that comprised of an estimated
21,300 individuals who were selected across 16,400 private dwellings present in
Australia. Two groups that were excluded from the sample were namely, discrete
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and ‘very remote’ regions of Australia (ABS
2018).
ii. Data collection for children aged less than 15 years involved conducting an interview
of an adult who had been nominated by the household for all child.
iii. Gathering information from then nominated adults might have prevented taking into
account important data based on the perspectives of the children, thus reducing
representativeness of the survey results (ABS 2018).
iv. They defined sugar sweetened drinks as those that included cordials, sports drinks,
soft drink, and/or caffeinated energy drinks. They also considered ready to drink
beverages that contained alcohol as a sugar sweetened drink.
v. They excluded all forms of flavoured milk, fruit juice, coffee, sugar free drinks, and
hot tea from the group. This would give rise to under-representativeness of the survey
results since coffee, tea and fruit juice contain considerable amount of sugar, which if
consumed for long time period, would increase the incidence of diabetes and chronic
disease in the target population (ABS 2018).
Answer 2
i. It was found that 31.4% males did not consume selected sugar sweetened drinks per
week, which was much lesser than 54.6% of their female counterparts. This suggested
that female adolescents were able to refrain themselves more from consumption of

3HEALTH SCEINCES
sweetened beverages. Sweetened drinks were consumed for 1-3 days more among
males (43.9%), in contrast to females (32.5%) (ABS 2018).
ii. An increasing trend with age is observed among females, in relation to their daily
consumption of sweetened drinks with 5.3% in 2-3 years, 5.3% in 9-11 years, and
7.1% in 14-17 years. However, the increasing trend is more significant among males
for daily sweetened beverage consumption. While 5.1% males aged 2-3 years
consumed these drinks, 11.8% and 15.9% males aged 12-13 years and 14-17 years,
respectively did the same, thus showing an increased tendency among males (ABS
2018).
iii. As discussed in the previous answer, the change is not much significant in females
and is primarily accounted for by males.
iv. Boys show an increased likelihood of drinking beverages. Only a handful of them are
able to resist consumption of these drinks. Furthermore, sweetened drinks are
generally consumed maximum for 1-3 days among both boys and girls. An increase in
age also makes the boys develop more inclination of consuming the drinks on a
regular basis, thus increasing their chances of suffering from chronic health
abnormalities in the long run.
Answer 3
i. The research is a qualitative study. Some of the characteristics that help in
categorising this study as a qualitative investigation are namely, (i) naturalistic
research, (ii) purposeful sampling, (iii) focus group data collection, (iv) immersion-
crystallisation approach (Marshall and Rossman 2014).
ii. No. Lack of awareness on health impacts cannot be cited as the primary reason for
increased sweetened drink consumption behaviour. This can be accredited to the fact