Extraneous Variables
The parental variable is the main confounding factor. Body mass index of parents and their socioeconomic status are important to consider when measuring the influence of the independent variables. These extraneous variables belong to the group of participant variables; therefore, the use of an appropriate strategy will help to control them (Grove, Gray, & Burns, 2014). The plan to control these factors will center on a random distribution of participants to the independent variable conditions. Therefore, the main method of control will be randomization. Even though the groups will be unequal for all the variables, they will be statistically even. Random sampling will ensure that the confounding factors are adequately distributed among the participants. The importance of this control measure lies in the fact that it will guarantee that the groups are equivalent before the intervention has been initiated and that the researcher has a representative sample.
Instruments
Food Behavior Checklist (FBC) is the instrument to measure the intervention. It has a self-report form with 16 items. The checklist covers such aspects as nutrition patterns and dieting. It investigates fruit and vegetable intake regime, water consumption, food security, and other aspects. It will provide the participants with an opportunity to evaluate whether their eating habits comply with nutrition guidelines provided to them by the nurse (Grove et al., 2014). Besides, the specialist will conduct pre- and post-testing on patients’ self-care skills. The results will be measured (before and after implementing the intervention) to analyze the effectiveness of the approach. It will allow reflecting on patients’ self-knowledge.
To obtain valid and reliable results, the participants will take the test before patient education and after it. The researcher will evaluate patients’ self-care confidence and the ability for being self-sustaining in diet management. Their confidence will be measured based on a certain scale (in which, 100 points are the maximum score; 70 – the minimum acceptable score). Many researchers tested the validity and reliability of the instrument. For instance, Suzuki, Choi, Lim, Tauyan, and Banna (2017) found that “FBC demonstrated adequate factorial validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency” (p. 593). Also, other researchers mentioned that the reliability coefficient for this instrument was rather high (r=43). The researcher can also calculate Cronbach’s coefficient alpha to examine the reliability of the instrument.
Intervention
Each participant and their parents will obtain a pre-and post-study questionnaire. It will evaluate their knowledge of the patient’s nutrition pattern, food beliefs and approaches, and health management. In total, the researcher will randomly select 100 patients coming from general care units. They will receive increased parental supervision coupled with a change in the patient’s diet. Food Behavior Checklist will help to determine the effectiveness of the intervention (Suzuki et al., 2017). Healthy nutrition promotion will center on the self-management of patients and parental supervision. Patients will learn to manage their conduct and weight-related choices, which will lead to a gradual BMI reduction. The patients will take a test on self-efficiency before implementing the intervention to assess their readiness to change. The family physician will provide patient education, conduct all the meetings, and record the follow-ups. After the intervention, the researcher will reassess patients’ self-management skills to analyze the alterations that occurred in their behavior.
Data Collection
The family physician will collect pre-and post-test checklist responses. Data will be collected to measure the sample characteristics, intervention, and BMI outcome. The family physician from the general care unit will gather the data before and after intervention implementation. The researcher will transmit the information to Excel. Importantly, the research will follow the principles of an experiment; therefore, the investigator will implement the intervention and oversee the reaction to it (Grove et al., 2014). A control group will be observed to contrast the efficiency of the intervention (patients belonging to this group will receive nutrition recommendations). The outcomes observed in this group will be compared to those recorded in patients who have been provided with dieting strategies and have been under the supervision of their parents.
References
Grove, S. K., Gray, J. R., & Burns, N. (2014). Understanding nursing research: Building an evidence-based practice (6th ed.). New York, NY: Elsevier.
Suzuki, A., Choi, S. Y., Lim, E., Tauyan, S., & Banna, J. (2017). Evaluation of factorial validity and reliability of a food behavior checklist for low-income Filipinos. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 49(7), 593-598.