Assignment: Clear references to be provided throughout.
Section 1) (500 words)
You are working in a public health and you are approached by a local education board to advise them on how to design a school-based programme to prevent childhood obesity in a high-income setting. Advise the board on what is known about ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn’t work’ in this
area. Provide:
a) Literature search strategy. Include search terms, the
databases used, your inclusion / exclusion criteria, and the number of
papers found.
b) A summary of what is known on this topic from one or more systematic
reviews. Summarise specific interventions or approaches that
have been shown to be effective and those that have been shown to be
ineffective.
c) What is not yet known on this topic but would be useful to understand
better through further research. Refer to the specific
systematic review(s) that highlight the research gaps you refer to, and
justify why these would be research priorities.
Section 2) (150 words)
You are the lead on developing a research project on the impact of COVID-19 in children. This should build on what is already known rather than duplicating existing research.
Read: Ludvigsson JF. Systematic review of COVID-19 in children shows
milder cases and a better prognosis than adults. Acta Paediatr. 2020;109(6):1088-
1095. doi:10.1111/apa.15270
Based on this paper, suggest:
A plausible and pertinent research question that can be answered
quantitatively. This should reflect a research gap that still exists following
this systematic review.
One quantifiable hypothesis that can be tested through research.
For the hypothesis identified in 2b, an appropriate statement of the null
hypothesis.
For the null hypothesis provided in 2c, an appropriate statement of the
alternative hypothesis.
Section 3 (300 words)
For the hypothesis proposed in 2b:
Propose an appropriate quantitative study design to test this hypothesis.
You should describe in detail what the exposure or intervention of interest
is and whether the study is observational or interventional.
Justify why you have chosen this study design in preference to other study
designs.
Describe how you would structure the timeline of the study, taking into account the key steps in going from completing the study proposal to submitting the completed research paper for publication.
You should include details of how participants will be enrolled into the study and whether randomisation will be used – and if so the approach to randomisation. You do not need to include a specific number of days or weeks for each step, but you should indicate the overall duration of data collection.
State all the variables you will collect data on and for each variable state the data sources or instruments you will use to collect / generate these data.
Section 4 (300 words)
For the hypothesis proposed in section 2b and the epidemiological approach outlined in
Section 3:
For each variable identified in 3d, identify whether it is a dependent or
independent variable.
For each variable identified in 3d, categorise the variable as
quantitative or categorical.
For each variable identified in 3d, categorise the variable as
continuous, discrete, ordinal, or nominal.
Select an appropriate statistical test to test the null hypothesis you have
proposed in 2c. Justify your choice of statistical test.
Describe what the ‘test statistic’ (the result of the statistical test) will be
and how to interpret this output to decide whether the intervention or
exposure has had an effect. You do not need to perform the calculations
for the statistical test you have chosen, but you should refer to
any threshold values that you will use to interpret the output.
Section 5 (675 words)
A researcher approaches you asking for advice with testing the association of
obesity with severe COVID-19 through looking at hospital records of patients
admitted with COVID-19. Participants must be aged over 18 for inclusion in the
study.
With reference to the scenario above:
Explain how you can reduce the likelihood of chance affecting the results in this study.
Describe three types of bias that may arise in this study, depending on
how it is conducted.
Describe three potential confounding factors that should be taken into
account in this study (hint: look up the relationship between COVID-19 and
obesity from a reputable source if you are not sure what potential
confounders might be e.g. https://www.worldobesity.org/news/obesity-andcovid-19-policy-statement)
With reference to the confounding factors described in 5c or otherwise,
explain how confounding can be mitigated in this study at the study
design / data collection stage.
With reference to the confounding factors described in 5c or otherwise,
explain how confounding can be mitigated in this study at the statistical
analysis stage.
