America Scores Program

Name

Institution

Question 1

Madsen, K., Thompson, H., Wlasiuk, L., Queliza, E., Schmidt, C., & Newman, T. (2009). After   School Program to Reduce Obesity In Minority Children: A Pilot Study. Journal of Child        Health Care, 13(4), 333-346.

Question 2

The authors of the article were:

Kristine Madsen – University of California-San Francisco, as an Assistant Professor in the            Department of Pediatrics, Division of Community Health & Human Development.

Hannah Thompson – UCSF, Department of Pediatrics, San Francisco, CA

Lidya Wlasiuk –  UCSF, Department of Pediatrics, San Francisco, CA

Emily Queliza – America SCORES Bay Area, San Francisco, CA

Colin Schmidt – America SCORES Bay Area, San Francisco, CA

Thomas Newman – University of California-San Francisco, as a Professor in the Department of    Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Division of Clinical Epidemiology.

Question 3

The title of the article is “After-School Program to Reduce Obesity in Minority Children: A Pilot Study.” The title does meet APA requirements as the total number of words are below 12, and it sufficiently conveys what the article is about, even going as far as to indicate the type of study it is discussing.

Question 4

The journal name within which the article is contained, is the Journal of Child Healthcare, volume number 13 issue number 4, from page 333 to page 346.

Question 5

The article was obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology information website, provided by the url: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3013280/ although additional information is also available on the SAGE publications website url: http://chc.sagepub.com/content/13/4/333.abstract

Question 6

The article does follow APA guidelines regarding the need for an abstract, as it has an abstract. In this sense, the researchers follow APA guidelines for writing and formatting a research paper, as they provide a concise summary of what the research is about, providing its key points. The reader does not need to go through the whole article, to determine the research questions, methods employed, participants, data analysis results and the conclusions. Further, the article also provides areas for future research, by concluding that the findings indicate that it is possible to reduce childhood obesity through the use of community based programs.

Question 7

The researchers hypothesized that the SCORES program would have a positive impact not just on the cardio respiratory endurance of the participants, but it would also reduce their body mass index. Furthermore, the researchers also hypothesized that the levels of attendance as well as retention would be high enough to warrant the institution of a large randomized trial.

Question 8

The dependent variables in the study are:

·         The Body Mass Index

·         Fitness

The independent variable is the length of enrollment into the America SCORES program.

Question 9

The research study is quantitative in nature, as it mainly deals with numerical data on fitness and the body mass index. The study itself actually entailed assessing the rate of change in fitness and body mass index (BMI) over a period of one year, during which the participants were involved in the SCORES program.  The findings and data sets collected are then analyzed and inferences made based on the final outcome of the percentage of children who were still overweight or obese following participation in the SCORES program. These findings were then related to attendance findings for the participants, in order for a clear conclusion over the correlation between participation in the program and weight gain to be established. All variables involved in the study are measured numerically and data analysis carried out accordingly.

Question 10

            The sample contained 178 participants drawn from third grade, fourth grade and fifth graders. In terms of racial distribution, 47% of the sample was Latino, 18% African American, and 25% Asian. This was a fitting sample, considering the fact that the study mainly targeted minority groups. The group was not subdivided into any smaller groups, with the only differentiating factor between the participants being their final anthropometric measures and the levels of attendance.

As already mentioned the sample selection was done on the basis that the participant had to be a member of the minority groups, with data collection occurring twice; pre-test as well as post test. The initial data collected acted as a baseline to which the final results wer.............