Statistical Analysis of Childhood Obesity - Research Paper Example

Body mass index is usually used to determine obesity in children of 2 years and older. The best population of interest could be school children where sample criteria could be broken down into class/age/height/weight-wise. Let’s say the class samples could be selected from classes 1 to 3, 4 to 5, 5 to 7, and 7 to 10.

Age could be broken down into categories: age 2 to 5, 6 to 9, and so on, height could be divided into 75 cm to 100 cm, 101 cm to 125 cm, and weight categories could be: 20 to 25 kg, 26 to 30 kg. Sample selection could be done via probability like a simple random sample, stratified sample, or non-probability sample selection. These samples could be applied to the population selected in such a way that would give us an objective measure of child obesity. The basic study design would revolve around social indicators like lifestyle, diet, and physical activity, genetic and environmental influences on a child.

An unhealthy diet could simply lead to obesity in a child, which has grown common in the US, for example. Diet itself could be broken down into sub-indicators like a combination of different meals throughout the day concerning a child’s consumption. A scorecard could be developed to give scores on the variance of the actual diet with the perfect diet. Scores could be broken down into different classes (e.g., score 1-3 being good, 4-6 being average and 7-10 being poor). Evaluating lifestyle would be a complex, yet the helpful measure of obesity.

Again these scores would be based on variance analysis and would vary from child to child due to the geographical location where he/she lives. Study design based on genetic and environmental influences on a child is something new and important. A child with hereditary obesity is not liable for it and, thus, requires a different type of treatment as compared to those children who don’t have hereditary obesity. Every child lives in a different environment, so she is exposed to different diets and lifestyles.

The environmental design of the study should incorporate different scenarios and try to come up with a comparable result via a scorecard.