Healthy Eating, Activity and Obesity Prevention - Dissertation Example

? Proposal On Healthy Eating, Activity and Obesity Prevention: A Qualitative Study of Parent and Child Perceptions in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah April 2011 Background There are several reasons why people should eat healthy foods. Such foods; Accord one a healthier and happy life; Keeps many illnesses at bay; and Improve on the quality of work, sleep and reasoning capabilities. Getting the right quantities of vitamins, proteins, minerals, carbohydrates and getting the right types of sugars and fats ensures a healthy living. Eating habits are dependent on the kind of life one has. Busy life tempts one to consume snacks which have high contents of fats and sugars. Although they give energy boost in short-term, they can be replaced by fruits which have same satisfaction and are free of fats and sugars not needed by our bodies. Unhealthy eating causes obesity, a network for diseases, which include hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes etc. In order to prevent obesity, regular exercises are required. In addition, controlled consumption of too much fatty foods and starch helps in controlling obese. More sleep after having eating is a bad habit which can be mitigated by a person walking and doing exercises on a daily basis In order to maintain a healthy eating habit, perceptions and income levels have been listed as being the key barriers. Currently, there exist very little literature on perception to healthy eating habits and yet such information is key in decision making. In the development of health policies, it is critical that they are based on facts and not hearsay as it happens mostly. Such information will help in influencing policy development, justifying implementation of certain policies and explaining the rationale behind certain strategies. Although the internet has so much information, its usability and level of success depends on the situation at hand. In this case, the collected data will be used to give prior information and the at times investment in carrying out such huge research studies is at times expensive. Aims and Objectives This qualitative report will employ the use of a sample which will be determined using stratified sampling technique. The research findings will form a part of critical literature on perception to healthy eating habits and prevention of obesity since such information is key in decision making and in the formulation, development and implementation of health policies and strategies. The proposed study will aim at; Establishing the impact of poor eating habits among parents and children in Jeddah; and Gauging dietary and obese perceptions of parents and children perceptions in Jeddah city. This will assist in; Identifying the role health policies and strategies could play in improving the eating habits and obesity prevention; Enabling the Government consider a eating-habits health sensitive approach in the planning and formulation of programmes/project interventions; Identify major hindrances to healthy eating habits; and Propose strategies in the health sectors; Sensitizing Jeddah people the importance of healthy eating. Literature Review According to Janet et al. (2009), there is every reason to eat healthy foods as they accord one a healthier and happy life in addition to keeping many illnesses at bay. The quality of work, sleep and reasoning capabilities all depend on the eating habits. Eating health means getting the right quantities of vitamins, proteins, minerals, carbohydrates and getting the right types of sugars and fats (Janet et al. 2009). Eating habits are dependent on the kind of life one has. Busy life tempts one to consume snacks which have high contents of fats and sugars. Although they give energy boost in short-term, they can be replaced by fruits which have same satisfaction and are free of fats and sugars not needed by our bodies. Bad eating habits lead to obesity. If obese, it means diseases are free to enter. Such diseases include hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes etc. In order to prevent obesity, regular exercises are required. Further, controlled consumption of too much fatty foods and starch helps in controlling obese. More sleep and more so after having eaten is a bad habit and a person should walk to get rid of obese. One should exercise daily and the exercise should not be as vigorous. Walking, using stairs and walking instead of using cars or bikes is a good practice. In order to maintain a healthy eating habit, perceptions and income levels have been listed as being the key barriers although no much information exists. According to, accessibility, availability and cost of healthy foods are also major hindrances to healthy eating coupled with family size and shape. All in all, perceptions indicate that many people have a feeling that their dietary and activity levels are good. However, it is important to improve on accessibility, sustainability and cost and not to dwell on other optimistic behaviours which fail to articulate eating habit issues which are directly influenced by divergent cultures, social life, family practices, education level and emotions. All the above lead to unhealthy eating behaviours and no policies can be formulated without factual information. To Arif (2006), several researches have been done but all of them have been concentrating on quantitative research design with several variables including level of education, age, residence etc. However, there seems to be no much studies done with more emphasis on qualitative approach and that try to understand the perceptions of Jeddah residents. It is reasonably true that, having conducted research on eating habits, Janet et al. (2009) arguments were based on quantitative measurements. However, there exists no much information based on perceptions and this research study aims at bridging the existing gap in information. Feasibility Study feasibility is all about determining whether it tests what it is supposed to be testing. Whether the study variables are reliable in explaining the phenomenon under study. The proposed study is feasible because, the proposed target population will be sampled and that it will not be a complete count. Further, before analysis, the data will be tested using Cronbach alpha statistics for both validity and reliability. Reliability is also evident as the research objectives are measurable. Establishing impact of poor eating habits among parents and children in Jeddah and gauging dietary and obese perceptions of parents and children perceptions in the city will create a picture of how residents consume as well as the challenges they have been facing. It is expected that the findings will inform decision making in health matters and that’s why the researcher is interested in identifying the role health policies and strategies could play in improving the eating habits and obesity prevention at the same time enabling the Government consider a eating-habits health sensitive approach in the planning and formulation of programmes/project interventions. Feasibility is also established by ensuring that such occurrences are avoided in the future through the identification of major hindrances to healthy eating habits hence proposing strategies in the health sectors. A research study cannot be full without disseminating the findings. A debriefing meeting will be convened for all participants in order to give them a chance to comment on the findings. This will go a long way in sensitizing Jeddah people the importance of healthy eating. Finally, feasibility will be ensured through the adherence to the set research norms. Research Questions By conducting the research, the researcher will aim at answering the following questions; Are Jeddah parents aware of the impact of poor eating habits? What are the perceptions of Jeddah parents in terms of diet and obesity? Are there health policies and strategies on healthy diet and obese prevention? What role have they played in improving the eating habits and obesity prevention in Jeddah? How does the Government plan health care? Are eating-habits health sensitive approach taken into consideration in the planning and formulation of programmes/project interventions? What can the Government take on board while planning? What is making Jeddah parents to adopt the present eating habits? and What effective strategies can be employed by all health providers? Research Design Research Approach This qualitative report will employ the use of a sample which will be determined using stratified sampling technique. The research findings will form a part of critical literature on perception to healthy eating habits and prevention of obesity since such information is key in decision making and in the formulation, development and implementation of health policies and strategies. The aim of the proposed study is to establish the impact of poor eating habits among parents and children in Jeddah by gauging dietary and obese perceptions and identifying the role health policies and strategies could play in improving the eating habits and obesity prevention. In the long run, this will enable the Government consider a eating-habits health sensitive approach in the planning and formulation of programmes/project interventions. Further, the identified hindrances to healthy eating habits will form a strong basis in the proposing of strategies in the health sector as well as in the sensitization of Jeddah people the importance of healthy eating. In this case, getting much information to make the findings credible is only possible through the use of structured interviews, structured questionnaires and from Focused Group Discussions (FGDs). The use of structured interviews and FGDS gives qualitative data since they are flexible designs. However, their success in collection of valid and reliable data depends on the researcher in that more information will be available if more probing is done. This is only possible if the researcher is qualified, is not leading and is able to read body language (Colwell 2006; Argyrous, 2005). The use of qualitative methods implies that the researcher is more inclined towards quality information as opposed to getting information from so many people at the same time. The researcher will employ the use of qualitative techniques as they help in establishing facts on what Jeddah parents and children like/dislike or their perceptions about their feeding habits, their sources of income and what makes them feed as they do. Qualitative data is informed by the respondents’ responses. Since the researcher is determined to identify the proportions in eating habits in the City, then qualitative research design is lesser and thus the need for the use of both qualitative and quantitative research designs. Quantitative research design technique is more concerted towards statistical numeric aimed at attaining a robust measurement (Dobson 1990). Data collection for the design technique is collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. Its development will take cognizance of all design requirements including non-ambiguity, no leading questions and content. Both open and closed questions are included in the questionnaire. Sample A research should be representative of the whole population and should be un-biased. To ensure this, the researcher will sample the population using stratified sampling where the entire target population is stratified according to the strata. This is so because the target population is not made up of persons with same traits, income, tastes and preferences. For validity and reliability further, the sample will be restricted in that one will be required to be a parent while the children will be required to have a guardian who will make the informed consent on their behalf. This is critical for any research dealing on human beings and more so vulnerable groups; women and children. Further, for one to qualify to be a participants. He/she will be required to have been a resident in Jeddah for the last 5 years. Gaining Access Before the onset of the study, the researcher will ensure that all participants will make an informed consent based on facts; information they will get from the researcher. Further, guardians will be required to make decisions on participation of their dependants. This will be made possible through a consent form (attached as appendix). Ethical Considerations According to Darley (1980); McNeill (2002) and Peach (1995), abiding be the set research ethical norms helps in the protection of individuals/communities/ environments and thus assisting in the summation of goods for the benefit of the whole world. To Peach (1995), researchers should always insist on elimination of systematic harm to the individuals/communities/ environments and makes it safe for future researchers as they will use factual information to further develop the world. In support, Schrader-Frechette (1994) argues that researchers should always endeavour to support and conduct research whose findings serves the purposes they were made for and which meets the desired deliverables. Further, as Jorgensen (1971) and Walsh (1992) puts it, if a researcher conducts business and meets participants expectations, they (people) tend to rely on him/her (researcher) to recognize needs which require interventions and thus their willingness to honestly and honourably participate. In this case, the researcher will conduct the research on human beings (parents and children) and thus the need to adhere to the following norms; Confidentiality in handling of participants information/data-no sharing of findings will be done before convening a debriefing meeting for the participants; Non-discrimination of participants; The researcher will ensure that all participants will make an informed consent based on facts; information they will get from the researcher. Guardians will be required to make decisions on participation of their dependants; Research study benefits will be shared equally. Participants will be informed of their participating benefits and risks involved prior to participation; and The researcher will works towards maximizing benefits and minimizing risks. In summary, all the above listed will help in maintaining integrity in the whole research process and will ensure that the findings build on incremental research requirements. Further, professional ethics requires that actions be guided by some laid down procedures. This will be the guiding light (Maxwell 1996). Data Collection Methods Both secondary and primary data will be used. Secondary information will lay foundation for the collection of primary data. Secondary data will be collected from the internet and accuracy will be of essence (Szmigin et al. 2005; Punch 2005). On the other hand, primary data will be collected using the two research design techniques data collection methods; structured interviews and questionnaires. This will be inline with the aim of the proposed study of establishing the impact of poor eating habits among parents and children in Jeddah through gauging dietary and obese perceptions and identifying the role health policies and strategies could play in improving the eating habits and obesity prevention. In the long run, this will enable the Government consider a eating-habits health sensitive approach in the planning and formulation of programmes/project interventions. Further, the identified hindrances to healthy eating habits will form a strong basis in the proposing of strategies in the health sector as well as in the sensitization of Jeddah people the importance of healthy eating. To get much information to make the findings credible, the researcher will employ the use of structured interviews, structured questionnaires and from Focused Group Discussions (FGDs). The use of structured interviews and FGDS will assist in the collection of qualitative data since they are flexible designs. The validity and reliability of the collected information will depend on the researcher in that more information will be available if more probing is done. This is only possible if the researcher is qualified, is not leading and is able to read body language (Colwell 2006). In this research study, the researcher will use qualitative methods implying that the researcher will be more inclined towards quality information as opposed to getting information from so many people at the same time. The researcher will employ the use of qualitative techniques as they help in establishing facts on what Jeddah parents and children like/dislike or their perceptions about their feeding habits, their sources of income and what makes them feed as they do. Qualitative data is informed by the respondents’ responses. One other research interest is the determination of the proportions of person’s adopting certain eating habits in the City. In this case, then, qualitative research design is lesser and thus the need for the use of both qualitative and quantitative research designs. Quantitative research design technique is more concerted towards statistical numeric aimed at attaining a robust measurement. Data collection for the design technique is collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. Its development will take cognizance of all design requirements including non-ambiguity, no leading questions and content. Both open and closed questions are included in the questionnaire. Before the actual research study, the research tools will be test-retested for validity and reliability. The pilot data will first be cleaned and the responses tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha values. If the values lie between 0.5 and 0.9, then the variables will be said to be reliable. Otherwise, elimination and substitution will be done. Validity will be tested by establishing whether the proposed variables are measuring what they are supposed to measure. Piloting will also be done for the interview and FGDs guides for the same purposes. Methods of Analysis The collected data will be analyzed using SPSS and EnVivo, software for analyzing qualitative data (Green and Salkind 2008). Different analyses will be done as shown below; The collected data will first be cleaned and the responses tested for validity and reliability. Cleaning will be done by first running descriptive statistics-majorly frequencies. This will assist in the determination of the existence of outliers and influential elements; It is expected that the collected data will have both qualitative, categorical; interval and ratio data and thus several tests will be of essence. In this regard, normality and randomness of the data should be guaranteed and thus tests for distribution assumptions and those for normality, linearity, collinearity, Heteroscedasticity etc. will be performed. Normality tests will be performed using density functions and histograms while the presence of outliers and influential elements will further be examined through the use of stem and leaf plots, Cook’s D coefficients and DFITs for both residuals and leverage points. Further, linearity will be established by carrying out the link tests while randomness will be confirmed using runs test. The relationship between most of the perceived independent variables will be examined since high correlations coefficients means that one variable/aspect can be used to explain the other and will form a key consideration on the statistical tests to be performed (Saunders and Thornhill 2003); As Bishop et al. (1975); Francis et al (1993) puts it, normality tests will assist in the decision of what analyses are to be used; whether parametric or non-parametric. Categorical variables e.g. sex and others will be tested for equality in representation through the use of binomial tests. Un-biased representation accords a research report the credibility it requires and boosts the possibility of the results being replicated and generalized (Green and Salkind 2008). Other categorical variables with more than two outcomes will be tested for parametric and non-parametric inclusion, a result which will determine the analysis directions; Logistic and multinomial logistic regression will be done to determine the odds of changing certain behaviours based on several assumptions; To determine the level of association/independence of the explanatory variables, Chi-square test will be used. The use of either exact or general Chi-Square test will depend on the cross-tabulated data. If small values (less than 5) are evident from the tables, then exact tests will be performed; Consumption behaviours among parents and children in Jeddah City from the different population segments will be analyzed using Analysis of variance (ANOVA). If normality, independent samples t-test will be used, otherwise Kruskal Wallace tests will be performed; Qualitative analysis will be done by putting qualitative data in EnVivo and analyzing it; Both qualitative and quantitative analyses will be performed at 5% level of significance and p-values will be the guiding light in the formulation of decisions/recommendations; and Results will be presented using tables, graphs and charts. Limitations Although the proposed research study gives more expectations, it is expected that certain limitations are expected. It is expected that budget constraints is likely to affect the research process. Development of research tools, data collection and quality assurance requires so much and determine the accuracy and reliability of the data. Further, these activities are immense and at times may demand that external expertise is sought. In this regard, getting the best qualified for the job may be a doubting task (Bryman 2008; Marczyk 2005). The fastness of the recommendations for policy/strategy formulation may affect the quality of information. Timescale   M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 Research Tools Development               Pilot               Data Collection and Quality Assurance               Analysis               Debriefing Report Finalization               Conclusion It is expected that the proposed study will answer the research questions. This will be made possible by adhering to the set research norms. Although, there are envisaged limitations, it is expected that they will not affect the research timelines. Th research findings will form a strong basis for further research, will be reliable for replication. References Arif, G. M. (2006) The Reliability and Credibility of Statistical Data for Poverty Analysis in Pakistan. Background Paper No. 2, Poverty Group, Asian Development Bank Argyrous, G. (2005). Statistics for Research: With a Guide to SPSS. 2nd ed. London: Sage. Janet, W. et al. (2009). Families’ and Health Professionals’ Perceptions of Influences on Diet, Activity and Obesity in a Low-Income Community. Health & Place, Vo. 15, No. 4, pp: 1078-1085 Bishop, Y. M et al. (1975). Discrete Multivariate Analysis: Theory and Practice. Creswell, J.W (2006). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches, 2nd edition. Sage Publications, Inc Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Colwell, R (2006). Handbook of Research Methodologies, Oxford University Press, US. Darley, J.M. (1980) ‘The importance of being earnest – and ethical’, Contemporary Psychology, vol. 25, pp. 14–15. Dobson, A. J. (1990). An Introduction to Generalized Linear Models. Chapman and Hall. Francis, B. J et al (1993). The Statistical System for Generalized Linear Interactive Modeling. Oxford University Press. Green, S.B. & Salkind, N.J. (2008). Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understanding Data. Pearson international ed., 5th ed. London: Pearson Prentice Hall. Marczyk, G.R (2005).Essentials of Research Design and Methodology (Essentials of Behavioural Science). Sage Maxwell, J.A (1996).Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (Applied Social Research Methods). Sage Publications McNeill, P.M. (2002) ‘Research ethics review and the bureaucracy’, Monash Bioethics Review, vol. 21, no. 3, Ethics Committee Supplement, pp. 72–73. Peach, L. (1995) ‘An introduction to ethical theory’, in Research Ethics: Cases and Materials, ed. R.L. Penslar, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp. 13–26. Punch, K. (2005). Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. 2nd ed. London: Sage. Saunders, M, Lewis, P & Thornhill, A. (2003). Research Methods for Business Students, 3rd edn, Prentice Hall Financial Times, London. Schrader-Frechette, K. (1994) Ethics of Scientific Research, Rowman and Littlefield, London. Walsh, A.C. (1992) ‘Ethical matters in Pacific Island research’, New Zealand Geographer, vol. 48, no. 2, p. 86. Appendix 1 Appendix Informed Consent Document This study is aimed at establishing the impact of poor eating habits among parents and children in Jeddah; gauging dietary and obese perceptions of parents and children perceptions in Jeddah city; identifying major hindrances to healthy eating habits; identifying the role health policies and strategies could play in improving the eating habits and obesity prevention. All the above will be aimed at enabling the Government consider an eating-habits health sensitive approach in the planning and formulation of programmes/project interventions. Finally, the study aims at proposing strategies in the health sectors as well as sensitizing Jeddah people the importance of healthy eating. Please note that confidentiality in handling of participants’ information/data will be mandatory. No sharing of findings will be done before convening a debriefing meeting for the participants. There will be no discrimination of participants while the researcher will ensure that all participants. Guardians are expected to make decisions on participation of their dependants by signing this document. The research study benefits will be shared equally and participants will be informed of their participating benefits and risks involved prior to participation. Finally, the researcher will works towards maximizing benefits and minimizing risks. Rights of participants and guardians include: 1. Participation by voluntarily consent (both parent and children); 2. No penalty for failure to participate (both parent and children); 3. Withdrawal without fine. __________________________ Signature Read More