Mental Wellbeing of Health Professionals
TASK A-Qualitative Research
Using the skills you developed in Topic 2, locate the journal article referenced below. Read the article carefully before answering Questions 1-5.
Strange, C, Fisher, C, Howat, P & Wood L 2018, ‘"Easier to isolate yourself...there's no need to leave the house"-A qualitative study on the paradoxes of online communication for parents with young children', Computers in Human Behaviour, vol. 83. pp. 168-175.
Q. 1.
(i) Identify the study design used in this study.
(ii) Identify the two types of sampling described in this study.
Q. 2.
Please refer to the results section of the study which outlines 6 qualitative themes across which the responses of participants are categorised i.e. coded. Imagine you are a health researcher and are responsible for coding some of the data collected. For each of the following statements please identify which of the 6 themes the statement most appropriately fits into:
(i) "We like to use apps like WhatsApp, Facetime and Instagram so that our parents living abroad can keep in touch with their grandchild."
(ii) "I find it a good way of communicating with other mothers who are in the same boat as me."
(iii) "When I see other people sharing the perfect pictures and talking about their child sleeping through the night it makes me feel like a failure."
(iv) "When my baby had a fever one night I looked up the info on a parenting website and that was a helpful guide on when to seek medical attention."
Q. 3.
Observe the data in Table 2 ‘Demographic characteristics by response to online communication question' (Strange et al. 2018, p. 171). Which scale of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) was used to present each of the following types of data in the table:
(i) Place of birth
(ii) Employment status
(iii) Length of residence in current suburb
Q. 4. Imagine the researchers had also asked the following open-ended question to the participants: "How many times did you use/access parenting information online in the past week?". What scale of measurement best aligns with the data that would be collected by this question?
Q. 5. "Online communication is an excellent replacement for fade-to-face meetings between families". Discuss in detail the accuracy of this statement in relation to the conclusions/findings of the study by Strange et al. (2018).
TASK B-Quantitative Research
Using the skills you developed in Topic 2, locate the journal article referenced below. Note that you do not need to read the entire article, only those sections mentioned in Questions 6-11.
Dunn, M, Thomas, JO, Swift, W & Burns, L 2011. ‘Recreational substance use among elite Australian athletes', Drug and Alcohol Review, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 63-68.
Q. 6. Read the introduction and methodology of the report before answering the following questions.
(i) Identify the specific data collection method used in the Dunn et al. (2011) study.
(ii) Using your own words describe the three aims of this study. It is essential that you paraphrase your answer to show your understanding of the aims.
Q. 7.
This question relates to odds ratios, confidence intervals and p-values. Based on the data in Table 1 ‘Difference between those who reported past-year use of any illicit drug and those who did not' answer the following questions. In Table 1 participants who were ‘full time athletes' reported whether they did or did not recently use illicit drugs. An odds ratio of 2.8 was reported for this risk factor of being a ‘full time athlete'. This odds ratio has a confidence interval of (1.6, 4.9) and a p- value of < 0.001.
(i) What does the odds ratio of 2.8 tell us about the risk of recent drug use for those in the sample who are full time athletes?
(ii) What does the confidence interval of (1.6, 4.9) tell us about the risk of recent drug use for those in the broader population who are full time athletes?
(iii) What does the p-value of < 0.001 tell us about the risk of recent drug use for those in the broader population who are full time athletes?
Q. 8.
(i) Identify the variable which showed the highest impact on risk of illicit drug use. Use the appropriate data (figures) from the table to briefly explain your answer.
(ii) State the p-value which corresponds with the variable you identified for Question 8 (i).
(iii) Based on the p-value identified for Question 8 (ii), is this finding statistically significant? Briefly explain how you interpreted the p-value.
Q. 9.
(i) Is the difference in risk for recent drug use between the two variables ‘know other athletes who use illicit drugs' and ‘been offered illicit drugs/had opportunity to use illicit drugs in the past year' statistically significant based on the associated confidence intervals? Explanations must be backed up by discussing the relevant confidence interval figures from Table 1 and how you interpreted them.
(ii) What do we mean by the term ‘statistical significance'? What does this mean for the difference between the two variables in Question 9 (i)?
Q. 10.
(i) The study identified two specific limitations. Using your own words explain what the two limitations were and explain how these may have impacted on the study.
Q. 11.
Imagine you are a health promotion officer and you need to design one evidence-based intervention with the aim of reducing illicit drug use in elite athletes. You must use the findings/conclusions of the Dunn et al. (2011) study to help inform your answer. You must use the skills you developed in HBS108 to source an appropriate study (i.e., one peer-reviewed journal article) which is relevant to reducing the use of illicit drugs amongst athletes. The study you select must provide evidence-based suggestions for interventions to improve the use of illicit drugs amongst athletes (or a comparable professional population group).
(i) Provide the full citation of the most relevant credible article you have sourced and selected. Copy and paste the abstract of the article into your assignment as an appendix (this abstract will not count towards your word count).
(ii) Describe your health promotion intervention in detail. Remember it must be based on the Dunn et al. (2011) article as well as the second article which you sourced yourself. Justify your intervention design by backing it up with the research findings and conclusions of the articles. You must demonstrate clearly how your intervention uses the evidence from the two sources to inform your suggested intervention. (10 marks)
TASK C- Careers Education
Q. 12.
The knowledge and skills you have developed in HBS108 Health Information and Data to date will be beneficial in your future career.
(i) Please identify a specific career of interest to you currently.
(ii) Find an online job advertisement related to the career you described for Question 12 (i) and copy and paste at least two of the selection criteria from the job advertisement which relate to your learning in HBS108. (Note: the selection criteria do not count towards your assignment word count).
(iii) Outline how two of the specific skills you have developed in HBS108 are relevant to the selection criteria of your chosen job. You must refer to the unit learning outcomes in the unit outline to help you inform your answer.