TASK A: Locating articles & Qualitative or Quantitative?
1. Based on the following citation of an academic journal article please answer question 1 (i) – (v)
Lennon, A 2007, ‘A risky treat: exploring parental perceptions of the barriers to seating their
children in the rear seats of passenger vehicles’, Injury Prevention, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 105-
109, retrieved 20 February 2017, CINAHL Complete, EBSCOhost.
i) the title of the article
ii) the author(s) of the article (Note: surname will suffice)
iii) the year of publication of the article
iv) the title of the journal in which the article was published
v) the specific database the article is housed in (Hint: EBSCOhost is a platform in which many
databases are housed, but EBSCOhost it is not a database itself.)
2. Using the skills you developed in topic 2 locate the journal article cited in question 1 above
through the Deakin library website and read the paper carefully before answering questions 3
(i) – (iv).
i) State if the article cited for question 1 above is a quantitative study or a qualitative study.
(1 mark)
ii) Briefly justify your answer for question 3(i) above – i.e. state how you know this particular
study is qualitative or quantitative? (2 marks)
iii) Describe in your own words what the specific purpose/aim of the above study was. (You
will find reading the abstract and introduction of the article most useful for this).
(3 marks)
iv) In this research paper the authors did not provide very specific details of how they
followed the code of research ethics in their research. Identify two principles of research
ethics which would be relevant to this study and explain how they would be important to
consider for this specific study. (1+1+1+1 = 4 marks)
TASK B: Research Questions
You are a dietician working for a community health practice and you are interested in carrying
out some research on the topic of coeliac disease. This topic is too broad and you must narrow
your research focus to a specific aspect of coeliac disease.
3 (i) Develop a specific quantitative hypothesis relating to the topic of coeliac disease. (Hint: You
might find it helpful to watch the Topic 1 Movie 2 for information on hypotheses and research
questions to inform your answers to question 4 (i) and (ii). Also, feasibility is covered in the topic
1 seminar, you will need to consider feasibility when designing your hypothesis.
4 (ii) Develop a qualitative research question relating to the topic of coeliac disease.
(2 X 3 = 6 marks)
TASK C: Searching Databases
4. Select either the hypothesis or research question you designed for task B. Students MUST
clearly STATE in their assignment which one they have selected to use for question 5 within their
assignment otherwise marks will be lost in this section. Using the skills you developed in topic 2
search the a-z databases on the Deakin Library Website to identify an article which is relevant to
your research question/hypothesis. Note – coeliac can also be spelt celiac.
The article must be:
A journal article
Peer-reviewed
Published within the past 10 years
Qualitative in nature if it is addressing the qualitative research question OR quantitative
in nature if it is addressing the research hypothesis.
Appropriate to your chosen hypothesis/research question.
i) Name the database(s) you searched in order to find the article. (1 mark)
ii) Specify the search terms you used to successfully locate the article. (Note: at least 2 search
terms should be specified) (2 marks)
iii) Provide the full citation of the relevant article you found (in Deakin-Harvard style). (2 marks)
iv) Paste the abstract of the article into your assignment before moving on to Task D. (Note:
Abstracts are not counted in the word count for this assignment. Abstracts will affect your
Turnitin score (they tend to increase it) but we look at each paper manually to ascertain the
originality of your written work so there is no need to worry about the impact of the abstract on
your score.) (2 marks)
TASK D: Systematic Reviews for Evidence Based Practice
5. Briefly explain why systematic reviews are particularly useful to health professionals.
(2 marks)
Please read the following passage before answering the remaining questions:
Imagine you work in the maternal and child health service for a city in Victoria. You have noticed a
marked increase in the number of infants presenting with food intolerances in your area and
mothers are regularly seeking advice from your service about this issue. You hear that probiotics
might prevent food sensitivities in infants and inform your manager of this. Your manager asks you
to investigate the formal evidence of this and report back to her on your findings. You decide to
search for systematic reviews to investigate if there is strong evidence to support the use of
probiotics in infants as a preventative measure for food intolerances. You select a quality systematic
review from the relevant papers you have found.
6 (i) Based on the scenario provided above locate an appropriate systematic review. State
where you located your chosen systematic review i.e. name the database(s) you
searched and the search terms you used. Remember you may need to try synonyms for your
various search terms in order to find an appropriate article. This will be a trial and error
process and so may take a few attempts. (2 marks)
(ii) Paste the abstract and full citation (Deakin Harvard Style) of your chosen systematic review
into your assignment. (Note: Students must provide an appropriate/highly relevant abstract in
order to get marked on this section of the assignment.) (4marks)
(iii) Based on the evidence provided in the systematic review you selected above you need to
clearly outline your recommendation to your manager on whether probiotics should be
suggested as a preventative measure for food intolerances in infants by your service. Your
recommendation must be well-informed and based only on the evidence presented in the
systematic review you located. It is essential that you paraphrase the evidence (i.e. write in your
own words) when writing the recommendation for your manager as she is not a health
professional and so you need to avoid using overly complicated health terminology. Your
recommendation must demonstrate that you have a good understanding of the evidence.
Note: Personal opinions should not be shared for this question, instead a well-informed
professional opinion/recommendation based on the evidence is required. It is extremely
important that students REFERENCE their source clearly when supporting their answer with
evidence and paraphrase any information they use. Also the professional opinion should be
clearly justified. (Please note that we do a similar activity in the topic 3 seminar if you wish
to get some inspiration for this part of the assignment).
