Action research: methods, applications, and outcomes

Research Questions and Terms In continuing to examine the initial study subject concerning obesity, and taking into consideration some of the population determinants which have been identified by the sample, drawing, we will develop a set of research questions which address the intended study outcomes and which help to structure the nature of the survey instrument. Indeed, there will be a close correlation between the nature and content of overarching research questions and the questions which are utilized in order to obtain information from survey respondents for data sets. The sample drawing will ultimately produce a population that is female and, by all probability, that will be narrowed to an age group that most consistently possesses the correlated problems focused upon in our hypothesis. Particularly, women suffering the likely correlated issues of obesity and such health concerns as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension will probably fall within a frame of middle-aged and older adults. These considerations will help to direct research questions. The primary research question will seek to assess the impact of health beliefs on lifestyle habits in obese women. More succinctly, the research question will be as follows; What is the relationship, in obese women, between health beliefs and lifestyle habits? Accordingly, the study will take an interest in examining the health beliefs of obese women as they concern the realties of the condition. This leads to the consideration of another important research question, which will ask what the correlation is in obese women between recognition of the serious health threats related to obesity and the orientation toward positive lifestyle habits. A related research question will ask what the relationship is between health beliefs within the selected subject group concerning the emotional, social and quality of life indicators related to obesity and orientation toward lifestyle habits related to nutrition, exercise and recreational use of time. This final question will underscore a series of survey considerations that will take the research into subjects such as family conditions, the belief in the presence of hereditary or chronic conditions producing the obesity and other formative factors which may be qualitatively assessed as potential outliers or as useful patterned indicators of a correlative relationship. The collective research questions will be used as a frequent reference in shaping the final trajectory of the survey questions. All those which may be seen to deviate from usefulness in the pursuit of designing the survey instrument may be excised in the interests noted by the sample drawing section of this project toward reigning in the length of the survey process itself. Key terms to be considered in this process will be those concerning a developed understanding of the purpose of the study from a health perspective. Therefore, this section should provide the study with a clear identification of those terms which will be needed for an understanding of the research subject as a whole. Health Belief Model is a theoretical model framing our study. This model, which is often referred to in the justification for public information campaigns, the identification of public health patterns and the illumination of other important factors as regard private and public health agencies, contends that there is a direct correlation between that which individuals believe regarding health and health-related factors and the way that they behave or orient lifestyle decisions. Such is to say that one who, for example, believes that smoking tobacco products can lead to lung cancer and mortality may behave by refusing to buy or smoke tobacco products. By the same token, in the case of our study, the health belief model might be used to hypothesize that one who believes that obesity is related directly to heart disease and early mortality might behave by eating nutritiously, attempting exercise or consulting a physician or more aggressive treatment measures. Obesity in this study will be defined as the state of being dangerously overweight. This will characterize individuals falling within a certain index as provided by the American Medical Association and other reliable health councils. For the purposes of the study here, obesity is only considered as a condition which common medical research argues to be health-threatening. Though at this juncture, researchers are not prepared to identify the specific index, the appropriate step in this study will bring a clearer use of this external research process to identify the exact terms of defining obesity. Lifestyle Orientation is a term that will also be raised throughout the study, as it has already been through the course of the research questions. This will refer to a wide array of conditions relating to one's behavior in the realm of health, especially focusing on the way one balances a diet, evaluates nutritional decisions, participates in exercises, occupies one's self in terms of employment and other terms that represent active decisions as opposed to medical conditions. Related Medical Conditions will be those typically identified with obesity such as heart disease, hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes and the threat of premature death.