Obesity Issue among Students - Essay Example

? Approach-Part of the of the of the Recruitment and Attrition Information The research aims to investigate the obesity issues among 5th grade students aged 10-12 years in the Long Beach Area, California. For this purpose, the researcher will contact the principle of the school to seek approval for conducting the research along with stating the purpose of the research and its significance. Based on the positive approval, the researcher will further conduct the meeting with the staff and teachers of the school to make them understand on the purpose, benefits, and significance of the research. The teachers will be offered training that will be very useful in the research process. The training will involve assessing the behaviour of children, identifying their health issues, their level of participation, and overall attitude and behaviour pertaining to physical activities and eating through thorough observations and analysis for a week. Teachers will not know whom to observe but they will be requested to observe students who are a bit obese. It is quite understood that teachers will not be having too much of idea on health models and thus intricacies of any health model will not be discussed and implemented in the training purpose. The prime reason behind doing so is based on the fact that this can be time consuming and may not be feasible for teachers to manage their time based on their other commitments. Based on the approval of the principle and support of teachers, the researcher will further design consent letters and interview invitation letter for the principle, teachers, and parents. The consent letters and interview invitation letter will be given to the principle and teachers personally while the same will be offered to parents by sending self-addressed envelopes. The details of the interview letter and consent letter have been attached in the paper and can be referred on page numbers (7-9). Based on the approval and support of the principle, teachers, and parents; the researcher will identify the sample size for the research process that can be considered as the most important aspect of the research. For this purpose, recruitment and sampling methods will be use in a logical manner. Recruitment of participants comes under the sampling process that can be categorised into snow ball sampling, convenience sampling, and random sampling methods. Snow ball sampling is based on identifying few participants through personal contacts and requesting to help in identifying few more respondents who can be potential participants of the research. Convenience sampling method is based on using advertisements and promotional tool to ascertain potential participants while random sampling method is based on identifying respondents randomly and thus posing questions over confidentiality and reliability. The researcher will use convenience sampling method to identify and recruit participants. The researcher will observe students of the 5th grade and obese students will be identified as potential respondents. The researcher wants to have a sample size of 200 children facing obesity issues and identifying these numbers of children, there is a need for support and cooperation from parents’ side. Parents will be offered detailed insights over the obesity issues along with referring reasons behind it by citing the reason that the school is conducting a health fair on a specific date where community doctors and nurses are coming to screen the health of children. Children will be mainly assessed on weight along with screening them from head to toe to ascertain their obesity issues and other health complications if any. Based on the screening of students, the researcher will further make an inclusion and exclusion chart. Inclusion of students in the research process will be based on the overweight of children (Children with more than 130 lb of weight) and exclusion of students will be based on the identification of any disease or putting them at high risk to participate in the research. As stated before, the researcher wants to have a sample size of around 200 respondents but the actual target is around 150 that can be considered as quite ideal. Based on the inclusion of the children, the selected students will be sent to the community health center where they will be further assessed by the dietician and physical therapist to assess their nutritional and physical status. Actual Action Plan Backup Action Plan It can be believed that the actual plan seems to be more important and result oriented that requires the support and cooperation of both parents and children and in case of little support from their side, the second backup plan will be used to conduct the research study. Sample Size and Statistical Tools The researcher wants to have a sample size of around 150 participants but in case few participants back out, the researcher will target a sample size of around 200 potential respondents. The researcher will conduct a pilot study in the form of a pre-test to assess the knowledge of students and parents. Based on the pilot study, the students will be selected using the convenience sampling method. The use of statistical tools will further help in testing the hypotheses. It needs to be mentioned that statistical tests like Anova, Z-Score, and regression analysis. Without the formulation of hypotheses, these tests cannot be conducted and thus the researcher will formulate few hypotheses by ascertaining the dependent and independent variables. A number of variables like food, culture, hereditary issues, physical activities, and presence of food outlets will be related to the obesity issues in Latino children. Based on these variables null and alternate hypotheses will be formulated and accordingly above mentioned tests will be conducted. Regression analysis will be conducted to estimate the relationship among variables that are dependent and independent in nature. On the other hand, Anova tests will be conducted to analyze whether means of several groups are equal or not and accordingly their relationships will be considered significant or insignificant by conducting t-tests. Anova tests also help in comparing more than two means and based on that null or alternate hypotheses will be either accepted or rejected. At the same time, z-score will be identified by conducting the normality test before the Anova tests. This will help in ascertaining the normal distribution of variances in a significant manner. All these tests will be conducted using SPSS that is considered as a reliable statistical tool in the academic and social research field. Overall, it can be said that the purposed tests will be used to analyze and tests the purposed variables by formulating few hypotheses and accordingly null or alternate hypotheses will be either accepted or rejected. This will help in ascertaining key outcomes and results pertaining to the childhood obesity issues among Latino children in the Long Beach Area. INVITATION LETTER FOR THE INTERVIEW FOR THE PRINCIPAL Study Title: Obesity Issue among 5th Grade Students in the Long Beach Area, California Dear _____________ My name is……….. I am an under-graduate student in the University of ………. I am doing a research on “Obesity Issue among 5th Grade Students in the Long Beach Area, California”. For this purpose, I need your support and cooperation. As a part of the study, I need your approval and consent to conduct the research in your respected school. I will conduct the research under the guidance of the medical staff as the research is aimed to investigate the obesity issues among 5th grade students. The surveys will be conducted for a week where community healthcare practioners will assess the weight and physical activities of children along with ascertaining their nutritional intake and physical status and well being. For this purpose, I need the support and cooperation of teachers. Teachers will be trained and guided to help the researcher in conducting the research by just helping in observing obese students and identifying their food habits and physical activities. The surveys will be conducted in your respected school and parents will be informed beforehand by sending them the interview invitation letter for their children and consent form to allow their children to participate in the study. As the school authority, you have full rights to allow or disallow me to conduct the research but the research will help in creating awareness in your school on obesity issues and thus, your positive reply and support will be valuable. I, therefore look forward for your positive and prompt response from your end. Thanking You ………………………… INVITATION LETTER FOR THE INTERVIEW FOR PARENTS Study Title: Obesity Issue among 5th Grade Students in the Long Beach Area, California Dear _____________ My name is……….. I am an under-graduate student in the University of ………. I am doing a research on “Obesity Issue among 5th Grade Students in the Long Beach Area, California”. The school is conducting a health fair on a specific date where community doctors and nurses are coming to screen the health of children studying in 5th grades. Children will be mainly assessed on weight along with screening them from head to toe to ascertain their obesity issues and other health complications if any. The assessment will help in reviewing the health status of your children along with offering you deep insights on managing the obesity issues of your children. The presence of doctors and nurses to assess the health of children further defines the systematic approach being employed by the school. As a part of the health fair, I will be conducting a survey where children will be asked few questions in your presence and based on their answers; outcomes and results will be shared with you. The purpose of this study is to identify reasons behind the rise of obesity among Latino children studying in 5th grades and the study will offer useful insights that will further help in mitigating the obesity issues. The surveys will be conducted in the school based on your consent; children will be surveyed in your presence. As the legal authority of your child, you have full rights to allow or disallow him/her to participate in the research but the research will help in creating awareness along with offering an insight over the health and related issues. I, therefore look forward for your positive and prompt response from your end. Thanking You ………………………… A. CONSENT FORM FOR PARENTS AND PRINCIPAL Title of the Research Project Obesity Issue among 5th Grade Students in the Long Beach Area, California Name and Position of the Researcher ……………. … Year Student, University of …………………………….. I confirm that I am aware of the content of the interview letter I understand the requirements and purpose of the study to be conducted I am aware that personal and confidential details of the school and students will not be shared with anyone I, therefore offer my consent to conduct the research Read More