The Rise of Obesity in America - Essay Example

Obesity in America Table of content Introduction Literature Review Methodology: Procedure Instruments Characteristics of random sampling Inferential technique Data collection and IT analysis Sample questionnaire Limitations of study References Introduction Obesity affects all populations around the world, but it becomes a major one for the American nation today. Some of the nation's top researchers, alarmed about the rise in obesity, are calling for Americans to demand a complete overhaul of the way unhealthy foods and drinks are marketed primarily to kids. Obesity is increasing in the USA; at the turn of the millennium around 30% of Americans were clinically obese compared with 23% of the population during the period 1988-94. Obesity causes an extra 300,000 deaths among Americans and health-care costs of $100 billion each year. Problem statement Taking into account the previous studies on this problem it possible to say that obesity becomes a national problem at the beginning of the 21st century. Obesity, generally defined as weight at least 20% in excess of the range suggested in standard height weight tables or a body mass index greater than 27, is generally accepted as a severe problem. That concept of obesity is questionable. There are, however, health benefits as well as health risks to obesity. Literature Review It is possible to singled out two main directions in the research literature: medical and social overview of the problem. Medical literature discusses the causes of obesity like overeating and cholesterol, and diseases caused by obesity. The main issues under discussion are the health status of the obese who are not in treatment programs, new medication for obesity, the role of ecersixe and diet. Up-to-date scholarship on both of these themes is reflected in recent researches of Flegal K.M., and Carroll M.D., Shephard, R.J. Clement K, etc. In order to reach a wide audience International Journal of Obesity is published where the recent medical studies are discussed. Also, the problem of obesity is debated by many other medical journals like Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology or Nature Genetics. To solve the problem of obesity scientists discuss the causes of it and possible methods to prevent it. It seems that all those issues have been debated for decade, but the statistical results are not comforting. Another layer of literature, which involves popular magazines and newspapers, addresses the problem of obesity from the social point of view. It discusses the causes of obesity and gives some tips to prevent it, but in general it represents unscientific view on this problem. The aim of this layer of literature is to familiarize wide audience with obesity problem avoiding medical and scientific terminology. Among the popular studies of this type is "Lifespan: Who Lives Longer and Why written by T.J. Moore in 1993. Problem hypothesis The hypothesis is that families with high income have a possibility to buy and eat healthier fat free food in contrast to low-income families which are used to buy lower-price fat saturated food. That is why more blue collars suffer form obesity than white collars. In addition, families with high income usually visit more expensive bars and restaurants where they order fat free dishes, but the popular place for low income people is fast food restaurants. The effect of fast food on risk of obesity is tremendous. It was proved that fast-food habits have strong, positive, and independent associations with weight gain and insulin resistance in young people. Methodology Research has two primary objectives; firstly, to build new knowledge, and secondly, to disseminate that knowledge and raise awareness of its potential applications. Knowledge created but not shared has no value. Ultimately, academic research should lead to practical outcomes that are useful to the profession and society at large. However, in all cases, time spent in making the population of concern precise is often well spent, often because it raises many issues, ambiguities and questions that would otherwise have been overlooked at this stage. For this research quantitative method will be used as the most appropriate one allowing to compare the statistical results from different social groups. If quantitative research is carried out correctly, both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques can be used to analyze data and draw conclusions. It involves a large number of respondents, and the use of random sampling techniques to enable inference from the sample to the population. Procedure. The first step will consists of: choice of design (qualitative or quantitative); choice of elements; elaboration of questionnaire in accordance with the type of sampling and questions' types; choice of place and conditions. The second step is questioning The third step is data analysis (including null hypothesis) The forth steps evaluation of the results. Questionnaires will be used in order to collect the necessary information. They will include matrix questions: identical response categories are assigned to multiple questions. The questions are placed one under the other, forming a matrix with response categories along the top and a list of questions down the side. This is an efficient use of page space and respondents' time, and closed ended questions where respondents' answers are limited to a fixed set of responses. Most scales are closed ended. Other types of closed ended questions include: Dichotomous questions - The respondent answers with a "yes" or a "no". Multiple choice - The respondent has several option from which to choose. In random sampling every combination of items from the frame, or stratum, has a known probability of occurring, but these probabilities are not necessarily equal. It guarantees that the sample is representative of the frame but is infeasible in many practical situations. With simple random sampling, each item in a population has an equal chance of inclusion in the sample. For example, each name in a telephone book could be numbered sequentially. If the sample size was to include 1,000 people, then 1,000 numbers could be randomly generated by computer or numbers could be picked out of a hat. These numbers could then be matched to names in the telephone book, thereby providing a list of 1,000 people. Thus, for researchers, the issue of relevance is very much linked to one's sense of social purposefulness. Unfortunately, much of what academic research has to say never reaches the ears of practitioners for a variety of reasons. The essence of academic research is to understand and explicate (as far as possible) practice. Where the frame and population are identical, statistical theory yields exact recommendations on sample size. However, where it is not straightforward to define a frame representative of the population, it is more important to understand the cause system of which the population are outcomes and to ensure that all sources of variation are embraced in the frame. Large number of observations are of no value if major sources of variation are neglected in the study. Inferential techniques can be used generalizing from a sample to the whole population. It also involves testing a hypothesis. A hypothesis will be stated in statistical terms that make it possible to calculate the probability of possible samples assuming the hypothesis is correct. Then a test will be coosen to summarize the information in the sample that is relevant to the hypothesis. A null hypothesis is necessary here. For example, the research will compare the test scores of two random samples of workers from different social groups, the null hypothesis would be that the mean score in the blue collar workers from which the first sample was drawn, was the same as the mean score in the white collar workers from which the second sample was drawn: H0:1 = 2 (H0 = the null hypothesis, 1 = the mean of blue collars 1, and 2 = the mean of white collars (Ragin, 1994). Research has a potential of causing harm to research subjects, and sound standards of ethics must always be observed. The research ethics should respect the rights of research participants.Research involving human should be based on a moral commitment to advancing human welfare, knowledge and understanding, and to exploring cultural dynamics. This has become prominent especially where large-scale trials are conducted in developing countries. It is the duty of researchers to conduct scientifically sound research while acting in the participant's best interests and respecting and protecting the participant's free-will. Some guiding principles of ethics include respect for: human dignity, autonomy, informed consent, vulnerable persons, confidentiality, the lack of harm, maximum benefit, and justice. Data collection will involve: following the defined sampling process; keeping the data in time order; noting comments and other contextual events; recording non-responses. After sampling, a review should be held of the exact process followed in sampling, rather than that intended, in order to study any effects that any divergences might have on subsequent analysis. IT has many advantages in academic research. It helps to collect and analyze data from different sources. The main advantage of IT compared with any other generators is, that IT is much more generalized. It is designed to generate any kind of text. IT can be executed independently from client requests, and its output can be directed to any target. Any number and any kind of objects can be provided by the programming experts. The limitation of the reseach includes narrow geographical area, which does not allow to collect information about different regions, and then compare results (there is no national statistics on the proposed htpothesis). And the second limitation is the level of reliability. Test-retest reliability checks how similar the results are if the research is repeated under similar circumstances. Stability over repeated measures is assessed with the Pearson coefficient. Alternative forms reliability checks how similar the results are if the research is repeated using different forms. Internal consistency reliability checks how well the individual measures included in the research are converted into a composite measure. Internal consistency may be assessed by correlating performance on two halves of a test. In general, the design is appropraite and its results can be applied to other populations. Questionaire may include the following questions: 1. Age_______________________________________________________________ 2. Sex: (m), (f) 3. Weight_____________________________________________________________ 4. Height _____________________________________________________________ 5. Profession and class location_____________________________________________ 6. Level of inome ( a year) a)10 000 -20 000, b) 20 000-30 000; c)30 000- 40 000, d) 40 000 - more 7. How often do you visit fast food restaurants: a)very often, b) often, c) seldon d) never 8. Do you pay a special attantion to food in your ration a) Yes, b) No 9. Do you buy fat free food a) Yes, b) No 10. Do you go in for sport a) Yes, b) No References 1. Andres R., Muller D.C., Sorkin J.D. (1993), "Long-term effects of change in body weight on all-cause mortality". Ann Intern Med ,#119, pp. 737-43. 2. Flegal K.M., Carroll M.D., Kuczmarski R.J., Johnson C.L. (1998), "Overweight and obesity in the United States: prevalence and trends, 1960-1994". International Journal of Obesity, # 22, pp.39-47. 3. Moore T.J. (1993).Lifespan: Who Lives Longer and Why. New York: Simon & Schuster. 4. Ragin, Charles. (1994). Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method. Newbury Park, CA: Pine Forge Press. 5. Rollnick S. (1996), "Behaviour change in practice: targeting individuals". International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, #20, pp. 2-26. 6. Shephard, R.J. & Bouchard, C. (1994). "Principal components of fitness: relationship to physical activity and lifestyle". Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology. 19, pp. 200-14, 7. Vaisse C, Clement K, Buy-Grand B, et al. (1998), "A frameshift mutation in human MC4R is associated with a dominant form of obesity". Nature Genetics, #20, pp. 113-4. Read More