Evidence Based Project

Week 7 Assignment 1: Discussion

For the proposed evidence based project, the clinical question that forms the basis of the proposal is: ‘Is there a significant difference in the results of body mass index for elementary age group children with childhood obesity included in a one year study where their parents are provided with health promotion education with those in a control group for a community-based study setting?’ In responding to the clinical question, the researcher will have an intervention plan that focuses on providing parent education on how to promote the health outcomes of their children. The specific aspects of the education provided include proper nutrition, adopting a healthy lifestyle and appropriate physical exercises for the children.

I will not need to develop an evaluation tool since there are valid and reliable tools available for use in such research. The evaluation tool for the intervention will be assessing the changes in the body mass index outcomes using the body mass index tool. I will gather baseline data from the children with childhood obesity at the start, and then have both pre-and post-tests of their weights and heights comparisons throughout the intervention period. The change will be measured by comparing the calculated child BMI, which considers their sex and age since as children grow, the amount of body fat changes as well as their BMI.

The participants will be identified through inclusion criteria where elementary age group children with childhood obesity and their parents will take part. The selected community for the study will require having a community health care facility center where children can be checked regularly for the changes in their BMI. The sampling method will take into consideration the population of the children with childhood obesity and the demographics of the selected community set up.

The confidentiality of the study participants will be safeguarded by ensuring that only the authorized investigators identify the responses of the subjects and that none of the participants use any personal identification information during data collection.

Week 7 Assignment 2: Evidence Based Project Proposal

Study Design

The proposed evidence based project will be a quasi-experimental but will have a comparative approach in data treatment to identify the difference in the outcomes of body mass index for the children with childhood obesity at the start and after the intervention. It will be critical to have pretest and posttest measurements of the body mass index values of the participants as necessary in quasi-experimental studies (Cook, 2015).

Setting/ Sample

The study will be based in a community set up with a nearby health care facility where parents can take their children for assessment. The study participants will be parents and their elementary age group children with childhood obesity. The choice of the participating parents will be based on an inclusion criterion where they ought to have children with childhood obesity and that they should not be receiving any additional assistance on how to take care of their children. Other demographic factors such as age and sex ought to be well distributed alongside others such as social, economic status, and level of education. In this case, a sample of convenience will be used since the criterion is defined and does not require random sampling.

Confidentiality

It will be necessary to protect the confidentiality of my participants especially concerning the information shared for use in the project. For all the data gathered from the participants, codes can be used in labeling the files other than using identifying information (Fink, 2012). Only the primary investigators will be allowed to use and manipulate the data for the research purposes only and have secure storage mechanisms for the same data. The data that will be stored in a computer system will be safeguarded by cloud storage and secure with strong passwords. The access to the information will be limited only to the investigators, and the data will be securely discarded few months after the end of the project.

Procedure/ Intervention

The intervention to be implemented will be providing detailed education programs for parents on how to promote the health outcomes of their children with childhood obesity. The education programs will be community-based and hence more efficient. The specific issues of concern will be the need for proper nutrition and what constitutes proper nutrition for children, adopting a healthy lifestyle, and the need for physical exercises for children. The education programs will be offered to the participating parents throughout the intervention duration from which they will be expected to practice them with the children suffering from childhood obesity. At the start of the intervention, measurements on the height and weight will be done, and the BMI calculated in consideration of the age and gender of children after which another measurement will be accomplished after the intervention period.

Instruments/ Scales and measurement of outcomes

The measurement of outcomes will be accomplished by the use of comparative approaches to the gathered data before and after the intervention. The BMI calculated for the participating children is a reliable scale for use in computing data on height and weight for comparison purposes. T-tests analysis will be used to test the difference between the calculated BMIs before and after the intervention to identify whether there is any significant difference between them. The test is quantitative only to show the differences, but much emphasis will on the description of the outcomes and reasons influencing them. The use of t-test in showing the statistical difference between the gathered data has been used previously in research and has high reliability and validity levels (Campbell & Stanley, 2015). It has consistent measurements on the variables in question and also reports a true account of the collected data. Hence, it can be relied upon in a study that seeks to identify differences in outcomes after an intervention.

Data Collection

Data collection will be achieved through short questionnaires for the participant demographics, but the data on weight and height of the participating children will be gathered using the BMI scales. The short questionnaires will have simplified questions on the age of the child, the gender of the child, the level of education of the parent and the social, economic status as for whether rich or poor. The factors will have specific categories to choose from; hence will not require any written descriptions. The investigators will do the measurement of height and weight and recorded in a paper format having the demographic details as filled by the participants.

There will be baseline data gathered before the intervention and later pre-and post tests will be done on the progress of the research. The pre-test will be done just before the start of the intervention and post-test will be done just after the period of intervention. It will also be necessary to have the data collected by other agencies on BMI of the similar age group for healthy children for comparison purposes.

References

Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (2015) Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research: Ravenio Books

Cook, T. D. (2015). Quasi?experimental design: Wiley Encyclopedia of Management

Fink, A. (2012). How to conduct surveys: A step-by-step guide: A step-by-step guide. Sage Publications

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