Methodology
Extraneous Variables
The focus of this study is to determine the efficacy as well as sustainability of school-based and home- based for children between the ages of six and eleven years and with a BMI ≥ 85th percentile in gender and age. In this case, the outcome measure is on the weight gain that will be measured as the BMI of the participant. Apparently, the idea is to have a situation where there is a comparison as to which of the two proposed interventions; school-based and home-based techniques that can help reduce the cases of obesity measured as BMI in this target population. Other factors lead to obesity such as genetics that may not be controlled in the study. In this case, the research will utilize random selection backed up by the development of a control and intervention group for each of the interventions. The similarities in the outcomes of the control and intervention group will help eliminate those that are not attributed to the actual interventions under investigation (Campbell & Stanley, 2015).
Instruments
The normal digital electronic weight scale will be adopted together with a stadiometer that will be used to measure the corresponding height. The BMI is the ratio of the height to the weight and since the method of using the stadiometer and the electronic digital weight scale is sufficient for subsequent measurements, these instruments will be adopted for data collection (Shah&Braverman, 2012).The stadiometer and the electronic weight scale provide reuse capabilities and therefore suitable for this study. These two instruments have been adopted in the World Health Organization project monitoring of cardiovascular diseases (MONICA), which implies that they are reliable in providing measurements for height and weight (Lichtash et al., 2013).
Description of the Intervention
There are two distinct interventions being investigated in this case. The school-based interventions will include a 30-minute theory session on a daily basis on food choices and dietary planning. The participants will also take part in a 45-minute light exercise program. A professional physiotherapist will guide the participants for the entire period of the study. Those in the control group will follow the normal routine within the school. During the weekends, the participants in the intervention group will be required to attend two-hour sessions of both theory and practical work with their parents or guardian as part of the therapeutic program. In this case, participants who fail to attend at least 80% of these sessions with their guardians or parents for the entire period of the study will not be included in the final analysis of data.
For the home-based program, the subjects or the participants will be required to work with a close family member say a parent or the caregiver or guardian. The participants will attend weekly one hour sessions at the social hall in which they will be placed through a teaching and training program on nutrition, dietary panning, and food choices. They will also be provided with a weekly dietary plan in the first week and in subsequent weeks, they will be required to prepare their own dietary plan, which will be approved, by the physiotherapist or the educator. This will help determine the efficacy and viability of each of them. The control groups will help eliminate the effects of the extraneous variables so that the ultimate results only do reflect the impacts of the intervention adopted.
Data Collection Procedures
The results from the stadiometer and the weight scale will be recorded from time to time in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet version 2010 corresponding to the demographic data for each of the participants. Before performing any measurements using the stadiometer, the participants will be required to remove their hats or hair ornaments as well as shoes. They will stand on a footplate or an uncarpeted floor with their back against the stadiometer vertical rule. The participant should ensure that the legs at the base are touching or in contact. The student’s body should touch the stadiometer at some points preferably the heels, the upper back region and the buttocks in a straight mid axillary parallel line(Lichtash et al., 2013). The stadiometer should be fixed to a wall or surface for uniformity and therefore reliability. For the weight, reliability will be maintained by requiring all the participants to take their weight devoid of their outer clothing and with empty pockets. The height and weight values will be recorded at the end of every week for the period of the study and into the observational or follow up period of one month. The ratios for the height (meters) and weight (kilograms) will be computed via the Excel spread sheet which will represent the BMI value as at that particular time (Ihantola&Kihn, 2011).
For the group in the school-based interventions, the physiotherapist and a selected teacher from the institution will perform the measurements and recording of readings after every session. For those in the home-based interventions, the parents or guardians will help record the readings evening before dinner. The control group participants will provide their results via a selected teacher in the school-based category and a respective guardian to record the height and weight. The height will be recorded to the nearest 0.1 cm while the weight will be recorded to the nearest 0.1kg (Lichtash et al., 2013).
References
Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (2015). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. RavenioBooks.Print.
Ihantola, E. M., &Kihn, L. A. (2011). Threats to validity and reliability in mixed methods accounting research. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 8(1), 39-58.
Lichtash, C. T., Cui, J., Guo, X., Chen, Y. D. I., Hsueh, W. A., Rotter, J. I., &Goodarzi, M. O. (2013). Body adiposity index versus body mass index and other anthropometric traits as correlates of cardiometabolic risk factors. PLoS One, 8(6), e65954.
Myrtveit, I., &Stensrud, E. (2012). Validity and reliability of evaluation procedures in comparative studies of effort prediction models. Empirical software engineering, 17(1-2), 23-33.
Shah, N. R., &Braverman, E. R. (2012). Measuring adiposity in patients: the utility of body mass index (BMI), percent body fat, and leptin. PloS one, 7(4), e33308.
