Reference no: EM132322009

Biostatistics Assignment -

Learning Outcomes -

• Distinguish between different statistical tests, especially in terms of application and interpretation.
• Develop a sound statistical approach to the analysis and interpretation of public health data and communicate findings in an academic-standard output.
• Critique public health research on the basis of its statistical methods, analysis and interpretation.

Background - This assessment task uses the Longitudinal Survey of ACU Student Health and Wellbeing, a (fictional) cohort study involving a survey administered to students on enrolment with ACU (first year baseline) and selected follow up data (during third year). For this task, you need to "write up" part of your results from Assessment Task 1 and present it in a format suitable for submission to the Medical Journal of Australia. You have the choice to write your paper using the results from: OPTION 1: Road traffic accidents OR OPTION 2: Depression and obesity.

Assessment specifications -

Purpose - To further develop students' analytical capabilities and ability to articulate their analysis in a form commonly encountered in practice: an academic journal article.

Assessment Task - MJA manuscript

Instructions - For this assessment task, you will present your results for your chosen option (OPTION 1 ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS OR OPTION 2 DEPRESSION AND OBESITY) in the format of a manuscript suitable for submission to the Medical Journal of Australia.

You are strongly encouraged to refer to the example MJA paper that is provided to give you a guide on how to write your paper.

For this assessment task, it will be necessary for you to follow the Journal's standard instructions for authors, noting that:

• You do not need to draft a covering letter or complete the downloadable conflict of interest statement - only the manuscript portion (using the MJA template which has been provided).
• Your submission will be a "Research - Original Research" type of article (of 1,500 words only).
• You should follow the referencing and other requirements of the MJA - remember, part of your assessment is the degree to which you meet these requirements.

Purpose of assessment task - The major purpose of this assessment task is to consolidate the various aspects of this course (critical appraisal of research, statistical methods) in a way that represents something useful for you in your later careers. Even if you are not involved in research in the future, you will always be using the results of research to guide your work (the basis of evidence-based practice). As such, you need to be cognisant of how research is "written up", and this task provides you with the opportunity to gain experience in how this is done.

The following guidance is provided about content and writing:

Introduction

• For your introduction, do not simply state that you are replicating the study, and/or just paraphrase your example paper. You should, at a minimum, include a brief, original discussion about what the issue under consideration is (road traffic accidents or depression/obesity) and why it is an important public health consideration.
• You should create aims/objectives to your study, and state these at the end of the introduction.
• The word count associated with this section will be relatively small compared to the results/discussion sections.

Method

• Your method section will be brief, as your methods are described elsewhere in the similar papers that have been provided. You should only include a brief description of the method as it relates to baseline/third year data collection.
• You should also include some brief detail on the statistical methods used in your analysis. This will reflect your understanding of the statistical methods used.
• You should include a brief discussion of how your measures/variables are similar or different to those of the study option you are replicating. You will find information about this in the original paper, and you are encouraged to refer to that paper in your introduction, method and discussion sections.
• Your study was approved by the ACU Ethical Research Committee (fictional)-you will see that this is an important thing to note in writing research papers.
• Remember, data collection occurs for first year (baseline) and then during third year (follow-up) - this is relevant for both options. You should make up a brief general description of how you think the study would be carried out.

Results

• This will include portions of the material you generated for Assessment Task 1 (you may also decide to do other statistical techniques if you have time but this is not compulsory).

Discussion

• Remember, you are building on the original study (provided in the attached papers 'AT2 option 1 - crashes' OR 'AT2 option 2 - obesity'), using a similar method of analysis (but with a different dataset) to see if the relationships that were found in the example study "hold up" in your data. You will not necessarily have exactly the same findings - this is either due to differences in the measures used or entirely different relationships in the ACU population. In your discussion, you should compare and contrast these between your findings and those of the original paper.

Length and/or format - Maximum 1,500 words plus tables and graphs (as appropriate).