Assignment - Quantitative Research Methods

In the attachment you'll find an SPSS data set named ASSIGNMENT INL2.sav. Use this data set to complete the tasks and research questions posed in this assignment. You need access to SPSS to be able to complete the assignment.

Use the course literature and the recommended web links (found in the document "Reading instructions and preparation" posted on Blackboard) to help you complete the assignment.

Before you begin, you need to download the SPSS data set ASSIGNMENT INL2.sav and save it to your computer.

Now you can familiarize yourself with the data set. Your assignment is to describe and analyse an imaginary sample with 59 individuals who have participated in an intervention study with the aim to see whether physical exercise improve their subjective health. The intervention included two different conditions, low frequency physical exercise (=< 4 times/week) and high frequency physical exercise (> 4 times/week).

The data set ASSIGNMENT INL2 includes the following background variables

• GENDER (1=woman, 2=man)
• AGE
• BMI (Body Mass Index)

Additionally, blood pressure was measured pre- and post intervention

• BLOODPR1 (Blood pressure T1)
• BLOODPR2 (Blood pressure T2)

As well as participants' subjective health pre- and post-intervention

• HEALTH1 (Subjective health T1)
• HEALTH2 (Subjective health T2)

The participants in the study were randomized into two different intervention groups

• EXERCISE_group

1=Low exercise frequency, maximum 4 times/week

2=High exercise frequency, more than 4 times/week

This is a category variable, with information of which of two intervention conditions the participants were randomized to.

• EXERCISE_occasions

Number of occasions of weekly physical exercise. This is a continuous variable, giving the exact number of exercise occasions for each participant.

Each research participant was assessed two times; the first time before the intervention started (pre-intervention) and the second time after the intervention ended (post- intervention). The intervention continued for 6 months and the participants were coached and instructed to engage in physical exercise of their own choice and interest according to the condition they were randomized to.

Subtasks/assignment

1. Describe the sample

Start by describing participant characteristics, available at pre-intervention (T1), i.e. gender, age, BMI, blood pressure T1, and subjective health T1. Describe both characteristics for the whole group, i.e. how many women and men, age (and standard deviation), blood pressure and subjective health. Also describe characteristics for the two exercise groups separately, i.e. how many participants were included in EXERCISE group 1 and EXERCISE group 2 respectively and then describe the same characteristics as for the whole group (see above).

In the description you are requested to use the most relevant and proper way of describing the variables, e.g. frequency distribution and/or a relevant measure of central tendency and dispersion. You can either choose to present the results in text or in tables and/or choose to use a relevant graph to present this information. If you use graphs these must include enough detail to be able to easily interpret the information requested.

2. Answer research questions

Use the data set ASSIGNMENT INL2.sav and relevant analysis techniques in SPSS to examine if there was

a) a significant relationship between number of exercise occasions per week and subjective health at T1?

b) a significant relationship between BMI and subjective health at T1?

c) a significant relationship between blood pressure at T1 and subjective health at T1?

d) a significant difference between Exercise group 1 and Exercise group 2 in subjective health at T1?

e) a significantly higher proportion of men or women with high or low blood pressure?

f) a significant difference in subjective health between T1 and T2?

g) a significant difference in subjective health between T1 and T2, depending on which Exercise group participants were included in?

h) a significant difference in subjective health between T1 and T2, depending on BMI category?

Also,

i) examine the influence of age, BMI, blood pressure T2 (BLODPR2) and the number of exercise occasions per week (EXERCISE_occasions) on subjective health T2 (HEALTH2), i.e. how much of the variation in subjective health at T2 could be explained by these variables all together and which of the variables are most predictive of subjective health at T2?

3. Mixed methods

- Define a research question based on the study of the relationship between physical exercise and subjective health that dictate the use of a mixed methods design. The question should extend the current study in that new or more data would need to be collected.

- Explain how you used different formulations in your question to pose the quantitative part and the qualitative part of the question and how they are linked to each other.

- Argue why the mixed methods design would be better than a quantitative or qualitative design only.

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar