Self-Assessment Questions (SAQs) for Study Session 14

Now that you have completed this study session, you can assess how well you have achieved its Learning Outcomes by answering the following questions. Write your answers in your Study Diary and discuss them with your Tutor at the next Study Support Meeting. You can check your answers with the Notes on the Self-Assessment Questions at the end of this Module.

First read Case Study 14.3 and then answer the questions that follow it.

Case Study 14.3  Nutritional problems of women and children

You suspect that a large proportion of women in your kebele are malnourished, in particular women of childbearing age. You would like to determine the nutritional status of the women, assessing this in terms of their weight relative to their height.

SAQ 14.1 (tests Learning Outcomes 14.1, 14.2 and 14.3)

  • a.In Case Study 14.3, who will be your study population?
  • b.What study variable would you investigate? Is this a numerical or a non-numerical variable?
  • c.What type of study design will you choose and why?

Answer

  • a.The study population is the total members of a defined class of people, objects or events. Therefore, women in the childbearing age group will be your study population for this research project.
  • b.The variable you will consider is their nutritional status, which is assessed in terms of their weight relative to their height. This is a numerical variable.
  • c.A cross-sectional study design will be appropriate, because it is possible to assess the current nutritional status of the study population and it will be cheaper than the other two study types.

SAQ 14.2 (tests Learning Outcome 14.3)

You also want to know whether the women perceive their nutritional status as a problem. Furthermore you would like to know whether and how the women could contribute to improving their nutritional status.

  • a.What questions could you ask mothers in order to shed light on the causes of malnutrition?
  • b.What research tool would you use to ask these questions to ensure that the same data are collected from every respondent? (Think back to Study Session 10.)

Answer

  • a.You may ask the mothers about their perceptions, symptoms and causes of malnutrition, and their current diets. Also whether they think it would be possible to improve their nutrition, and if not, what are the barriers preventing this.
  • b.A structured questionnaire would be a systematic way to ask each woman about the same issues in the same way.

SAQ 14.3 (tests Learning Outcomes 14.1 and 14.3)

What other possible study variables will you investigate in Case Study 14.3?

Answer

We don’t know exactly what you suggested, but we expect you will have thought of at least some of the possible list of variables below:

  • woman’s age

  • number of children

  • education

  • ethnicity

  • types of food in the diet.

Now read Case Study 14.4 and then answer the question that follows it.

Case Study 14.4  Reducing the number of cases of malaria

In your area an indoor spraying programme was completed recently to try to reduce the mosquito population. Nevertheless, the number of malaria cases shows peaks in certain households in the kebele, which you cannot explain. You suspect that there may have been opposition to the spraying in some households, and want to find out if there is a relationship between the houses that were sprayed and the occupants who have suffered from malaria since the spraying was done.

SAQ 14.4 (tests Learning Outcomes 14.1 and 14.4)

Describe the study design that you would use in Case Study 14.4 and explain why you chose it.

Answer

In the example in Case Study 14.4, a cross-sectional study design will be most appropriate. You would ask every household at the same point in time whether they had accepted or refused to have their houses sprayed during the recent programme, and whether any members of the household have suffered from malaria since the spraying was done. This would be a suitable study design because it will give you a quick answer about whether those households where spraying was not done have the most cases of malaria. In addition, it would be cheap to conduct.

You may instead have suggested a case-control study. You would investigate whether malaria cases were more likely to come from unsprayed households, whereas people who did not develop malaria (the controls) came mainly from sprayed households. This would also be a suitable study design for investigating this problem, so would be a correct answer. However, it would be more complex and expensive to undertake than a cross-sectional study, so the cross-sectional design is preferable.

Summary of Study Session 14