Appraisal of Two Research Papers in Healthcare: Obesity Analysis

This report critically evaluates two research papers concerning childhood obesity, a growing global health concern. The first paper, employing a quantitative approach, examines factors, education, and interventions related to childhood overweight and obesity, drawing on statistical data from organizations like the WHO and NCHS. The second paper, using a qualitative approach, delves into the causes and consequences of childhood obesity, emphasizing unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. The analysis highlights the strengths of each paper, including the validity of data and the use of both qualitative and quantitative data to understand the issue comprehensively. The report underscores the importance of addressing obesity through lifestyle changes, healthy eating habits, and awareness campaigns. The report also discusses the different data collection methods used in each paper, emphasizing the value of statistical evidence in supporting research findings and providing a comprehensive understanding of the impact of obesity in both developed and developing countries. It concludes that both research papers are crucial for understanding the multifaceted nature of childhood obesity, its causes, and its consequences, thereby promoting better health outcomes.

Appraisal of Two
Research Papers in
Health Care Issues

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In this research paper, there are two articles taken in which critical evaluation is done.
The evaluated papers are based on obesity which is growing frequently among humans. The first
paper is based on Childhood Overweight and Obesity: Affecting Factors, Education and
Intervention. Obesity and overweight is the growing among the children of all ages. According to
the report of World Health Organization, the obesity among the children increases by 47.1%
from 1980 to 2013. Another estimate shows that in 2014, 41 million children under the age of
five years are suffering from obesity (Abrami and et. al., 2015). According to the data released
from a nationally representative study of US, around 17% of children between the age of 2 – 19
years are found obese in 2011 to 2014 (Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. 2015). This
is a qualitative approach in which statistical data is collected. Another paper is based on
Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. In this paper, the childhood epidemic is rapidly
increasing in the developed and developing countries. There are many reason why this issue is
increasing rapidly such as unhealthy diet and lack of physical workout. This also help in
increasing the chances of disease among the children. The data collected in this paper is through
quantitative approach in which no statical data is included.
When these synopses have been discussed where two papers will be used that are based
on the problem of obesity among children that are qualitative and quantitative. In quantitative
paper there is statistical data present which is helpful in determining the aggregate impact of
obesity among particular age grouped people. In spite of that, another paper consists of
qualitative data which is helpful in identifying the causes, implications, effects, consequences of
obesity among children from theoretical prospectives. The first paper is mostly based upon the
evidence of obesity consequence. These consequences will help the reader to change and
improve their dietary habit and lifestyle. So that the children suffering from this disease can live
their life healthier and better.
MAIN BODY
The research which is collected is very useful in the collection of knowledge in the field
of obesity. The researcher is able to collect the data released by many standardised organizations.
This allows the researcher in increasing its knowledge. Apart from that, researcher is also able to
know about the causes and consequences of obesity in childhood. With the help of it, they can

improvise their knowledge among individuals (Busk and Marascuilo, 2015). The information
collected through paper is also helpful in gaining knowledge about the impact of obesity in
particular countries. Although the impact of obesity is not only limited to a particular country but
also it has taken almost all developed and developing countries in its jaws. Therefore, to
overcome the issue in obesity each and every country should participate. The parents as well as
teachers must work toward developing a habit of healthy and dietary food among children which
also helpful in their body development. It is because unhealthy food habit in term of Fast food
and junk food not only increases obesity but also decreases the life span of children. Hence
people should be aware about the deadly consequences of obesity so that the impact could be
managed by improving the habits of people.
This study is valid as it contain an undated and accurate information about prevailing
obesity among children along with their consequences. This help in making public aware of this
epidemic with the help of useful information provided in paper. This information allows them to
know about the consequences and the causes. When such information is provided it allows them
to protect themselves. They can be aware about the benefits of healthy diet and workout. This
will improve the generation in future also. The statistical data also provide them evidence to
counter the information gathered. This allows them to make effective change in their life style.
Effective change helps them in eating dietary food which is helpful in the children to grow faster.
Fast and junk food does not provide necessary needs to the development of body. Therefore, it is
essential for the parents to learn about the needs and requirements of children so that they can
develop easily. Malnutrition in body can also invite many diseases, therefore proper diet should
be followed by children.
The collected data from both the paper provide same knowledge but the collection of data
is different (Creswell and Clark, 2017). One paper has qualitative data and other one has
quantitative data. The statistical data is emerged with the paper having qualitative data. The
qualitative data allows the researcher to collect statistical data through which they can provide
evidence to their knowledge while quantitative data allows the researcher to collect the
information which gives them benefit in understanding of the process of obesity. This
information help the researcher in developing an understanding regarding the reason behind
increasing obesity and its negative consequences in term of health and other factor. So by
developing such understanding it would be able to recommend the solution to deal with such

health issues. While in other paper the collected data shows only the data in different countries.
This shows that obesity is not only impacting in the developing countries but also in developed
countries such as USA etc. The information collected through both the papers are validate with
the sources. The validity of data collected from both the papers is shown already. Therefore, the
informed data is not only valid but also help in addressing the issue of obesity as soon as
possible. In case of qualitative data, it is helpful for the readers to believe on the consequences of
obesity. This will not only help them to keep an attention of the weight and diet.
These findings are evidence based because statistical data is provided in it. The data
collected in qualitative form does not have any type of statistics but the data collected in
quantitative form have some statistical data which back up the information provided in paper.
But the qualitative data is also useful as it provides the knowledge and information to the readers
about the bad effect of Obesity on children and also provide with the ways by which
improvement and prevention can be made from this disease. So this qualitative data is also of
great importance in the completion of this research as compared to quantitative data. This type of
information not only provide evidence but also it increases faith of reader in it. The reader
believes on the data so that they can be aware about the facts which are provided about obesity.
This also increases interest of the reader in the paper (Freedman, Cockburn and Simcoe, 2015).
Thus, it can be said that the statistical data also help the reader in giving evidence to the content.
The content having no evidence does not make effect on the minds of reader. The content having
statistical data allows the reader to make faith on the data. Both of the data are importance with
their own perspective such as for the organisations, quantitative data is important but for people
and general public qualitative data is important as this data provides them the ways by which
them can prevent themselves from the ill effect on this disease.
The studies are based upon qualitative and quantitative data which are about the disease
of obesity their causes and consequences to the children. In the first article named as “Childhood
Overweight and Obesity: Affecting Factors, Education and Intervention”, which is based upon
quantitative data. The following research is valid one as the data that it contains is recorded from
the WHO (World Health Organisation), that provides an estimate of the children affected from
the disease. Further, the data is also collected through NCHS (National Centre for Health
Statistics) which are the certified organisations that provides data by proper research. In the
second article named as Childhood Obesity: Causes and Consequences, which is based upon

qualitative data is also a valid study as this involves theoretical information about why this
disease occurs and what are the consequences of this disease (Piwek and et. al., 2016). The
reasons explained in this study about the cause of obesity are right as this can be seen in the daily
life such as in hospitals, where people are suffering from obesity which causes the same diseases
as mentioned in this article. Not only in this article but also in the real life, the examples of these
cases can be seen and met (Glaser and Strauss, 2017). So it is clear that both the research is valid
as they have their own reasons which justifies about their accuracy.
Both the articles are covering the same topic area. These both are addressing obesity
occurring in the childhood ages to children. Further these articles are also addressing about the
causes and consequences of obesity disease (Tukker, 2015). The use of both the theoretical and
practical data are done in order to justify the topic of the article. The reasons and consequences
provided in the article about why children are suffering from Obesity and what are the
consequences of Obesity to children are also covered under this article. So from the data
mentioned in these articles, it is clear that they both are addressing a clear research question
which is regarding the impact, reason and consequences of obesity on the children.
Qualitative Data are those data which hare based upon the theories and models
propounded earlier and contains only theoretical data in the description. Quantitative Data can be
defined as the data which is contains some numerical data, amount or range in it. For this
Research, Quantitative Data will be more helpful as it provides a clear and broader study about
the research topic which involves a number of subjects and enhances the reliability of the results.
Further, it also provides greater accuracy of results which can also used for future references and
the effect can also be known clearly. These reference will also provide the new ways of
improvement in the traditional ways of working. The results coming from the quantitative
research can also be used for making a comparison in between the past and present results which
will help in measuring the improvement made and also in knowing the reasons why the issue had
not overcome yet (Hart, 2018). Due to these reasons, quantitative data will be better than
qualitative data. In this type of data collection method, the results are not based upon hypothesis
assumptions, they came from by doing proper experiments, surveys and then finally the
conclusion has been made for them. These type of data collection method also provides with the
measurement of the achievement gaps in between the different groups and time scales and
periods.

The methods for collection of data used in this article are quantitative and qualitative
data. The design used in this research for acquiring data is the descriptive design. The use of
secondary data collection method is also done as the statistical data provided in the articles are
already published by some other organisations (Taylor, 2017). The methods used in this article
for the collection of data are appropriate as the papers contains both qualitative and quantitative
data. Further evidences for the statements provided in the paper are also given which increases
the reliability and validity of the papers. It is so because from this method, proper knowledge
about the reason for which the research has been conducted is clear (Hussein, 2015). The
information is also collected with the help of statistical data providing clear and measurable
results to the learners and which can also be used for future reference. In addition to this, the data
is also collected from the data published by government certified organisations such as NCHS,
WHO, etc. Further it also provides ground for making improvements in the ways of providing
treatment as these data will provide about the weaknesses and the needed improvements to be
made in the process of working.
Childhood obesity is one of the most the prominent issue that children of all age are
facing now a day which negatively affect their health and also impacts upon the day to day
activities of their working. The major cause of obesity is the changing lifestyle of children and
their craze toward having unhealthy or fast food. These foods basically increase fat among
children at very young age which raises the chance of several health issues like high blood
pressure, heart disease, diabetes etc. In order to avoid these diseases, it is important for not only
to the children but also to the parents to take care of their children and make them to eat only
healthy food. So in order to identify the issues and cause behind the obesity, a research has been
performed over childhood obesity to collect information regarding this issue (Kagel and Roth,
2016). This information has been collected by considering two article among which one contains
qualitative data and another one is consists of quantitative data.
Article one “Childhood Overweight and Obesity” consist of qualitative data which put
more emphases over determining the consequences of obesity with in a child's life along with the
factors that are responsible for increasing obesity. After analysing the above article, it has been
found that obesity is a global epidemic among children of all age and as per the World Health
Organisation obesity has been increased among children by 47.1% in last 10 years. From the
survey conducted in year 2014 it has been found that around 41 million children are affected

with obesity and most of the children are from United State and continuously rising among them.
In addition to this from the most recent quantitative data it has been identified that obesity among
adolescent is 20.6% and 18.4% in school going children is much higher than it is among
preschool aged children i.e. 13.9% (Childhood Overweight and Obesity. 2015). This research
paper also provides a detail information about the consequences of increasing obesity among
childhood and it has been found that it gives birth to several diseases which may also rises the
risk of death at very young age. It usually increases the cardiovascular diseases in form of higher
cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressures issues etc.
So, in order to overcome this and promote childhood overweight and obesity National
Health Education Standard has been developed in order to promote and support health enhancing
behaviour among society (Lewin and et. al., 2015). NHES work toward promoting the awareness
about Nutrition and physical activity among society for making them understood that healthy
living is a prior goal of each person. In addition to this, subcommittee has been formulated which
is sanctioned by Department of Health and Human Service in order to encourage health
awareness among society related to obesity. This committee formulated some guidelines in order
increase the Physical activities among youth by modifying the school setting and strictly order
the institutions to strictly follow this generally in preschool as well as childcare setting. The
factors that result in obesity are less physical activities, mental health of a child, sleep hygiene
and media uses, these all leads to decrease the physical movement of children and then it leads to
increase in obesity risk among them.
So from this research paper it has been found that there are number of committees has
been formulating that provide guidelines to schools and other institutes related to ways that
support in decreasing the obesity like 60 min activities must be involve in routine of children
between 6-17 years (Liñán and Fayolle, 2015). Along with this nutrition guideline has also been
passed by these committees and as a result of which the nutrition level gets increased by 68.9%
to 70.6% in elementary school (Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. 2015).
From the second article i.e. “Childhood obesity: causes and consequences”, it has bee4n
found that Overweight and obesity left a significant impact over the physical as well as
psychological health. The children who are suffering from obesity likely to have non
communicable disease in their adulthood which includes cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Apart from it, this research paper also helped in determining the main reason behind increasing

obesity among people. This includes intake of sugar in form of soft drink, steady declining in
physical activities etc. plays a major role toward rising rate of obesity throughout the world. In
addition to this from research paper it has been found that fast food consumption is the major
cause behind the obesity among people which includes sugar beverages, snack food, portion size
(Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).
So the result of this research is that obesity is increasing among people day by day and
most in children and the main cause of it is dietary habit, less intake of nutrition, lower physical
activities etc. The outcome of these two research papers are successful as they both provide
knowledge about the disease obesity and also inform the readers about the bad impact of this
disease on the health of people. Not only this but another reason for the usefulness of the results
of this research is that there are also some ways provided in the papers about preventing people
from being affected by this disease. Apart from this, it has been found that there are number of
factors which are the main cause behind increasing obesity issue among people which includes,
Imbalanced nutritional diet that means children are not in-taking the adequate amount of
nutrition which they required to include in their daily routine for their physical as well as mental
health. Despite of this they are more obsessed to eat unhealthy food which are there to fulfil their
food desire. But this issue of obesity can be minimized if the society try to focus over its causes.
Parents can put more emphases by switching the fast food or unhealthy diet to a meal full of
nutrition it helps in increasing the good fat that support toward improving the physical as well as
mental health of a person (Petersen, Vakkalanka and Kuzniarz, 2015). Apart from this schools
can more focus toward a concept of combined diet and physical activities which is more helpful
in removing obesity or overweight among children.
The result that extract from the above two articles are valid as one contains the statically
data which prove the reliability of article and another article consist of consequences of obesity
that exist in real life. Hence the data provided by both the research paper are correct. But from
the above two research paper the quantitative article i.e. “Childhood Overweight and Obesity”
provide better result as it consists of statistical data which is being provided by government
certified associations such as WHO, NCHS.
The results of these two research papers are clear as they provide the consequences of
obesity and also provides the readers about how to make prevent themselves from this disease.
The data gathered is about the qualitative data and the quantitative data is informed in the

research paper. This data is helpful in both the matters. The quantitative data is helpful in
increasing the faith among the readers about obesity while the qualitative data help in finding the
causes and consequences of obesity. When people will be aware about the causes and
consequences of obesity they will be aware about this deadly disease from their childhood. Thus
it can be said that there was not any problem in the result.
CONCLUSION
From the above given data it can be concluded that both the articles based upon the use of
quantitative and qualitative data have their own importance. It depends upon the type of
knowledge that the learner wants from the research. From this research it is clear that the
quantitative method of collecting data is better than the qualitative as it provides clear and
accurate results having their reliability and validity for a long period of time. Further, it can also
be said that the data provided in these articles can also be applied in the real life situations so that
children can be prevented from these diseases.

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Online
Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. 2015. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408699/>
Journal of Childhood Obesity. 2019. [Online]. Available Through: <http://childhood-
obesity.imedpub.com/childhood-overweight-and-obesity-affecting-factors-education-
and-intervention.php?aid=22485>

Childhood Overweight and Obesity: Affecting Factors, Education and Intervention. 2018.
[Online]. Available through:<http://childhood-obesity.imedpub.com/childhood-
overweight-and-obesity-affecting-factors-education-and-intervention.php?aid=22485>.
Childhood obesity: causes and consequences. 2015. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408699/>.