The data for this final section are drawn from Hanson et al.’s (2013) study examining the efficacy of an exercise referral scheme in the North East of England. The scheme aimed to help people with weight- and fitness-related health conditions through referral by a doctor to a six-month exercise programme. Data were collected from participants at the point of referral, three months after starting the programme and finally on completion of the programme to track change over time.
Hanson et al’s study demonstrates that engagement with the exercise programme is variable: many do not start the programme and of those who do, not all will complete it. They also found that engagement was related in part to age: older participants were more likely to start and complete the programme than younger participants. However, their paper is focused on participation and not whether participation has positive health outcomes. This is the focus of the final question.
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The RMA Exercise Referral dataset on DUO contains a selection of data from the project, including:
• Attendance: how many of the 48 programme sessions participants attended in total
• Age: how many years old participants were at the start of the programme
• Physical_Change: how much participants’ physical wellbeing improved or declined between the start and end of the programme
• Psychological_Change: how much participants’ psychological wellbeing improved or declined between the start and the end of the programme
The final two variables were measured using the World Health Organisation Quality of Life (WHOQOL) assessment, where respondents are asked several questions related to health and wellbeing and the answers totalled into a single numerical value.
Higher scores mean higher levels of wellbeing, so a positive value indicates an increase in wellbeing, while a negative value indicates a decrease in wellbeing across the six months of the programme. For the sake of this assessment, you should treat these two variables as scale even through this can be disputed.
Questions:
a) Using appropriate statistics, describe the distribution of the Physical_Change variable. What can you conclude about changes in physical wellbeing over the length of the programme?
b) Using appropriate statistics, describe the distribution of the Psychological _Change variable. What can you conclude about changes in psychological wellbeing over the length of the programme?
c) Using appropriate statistics, determine the effect of Age and Attendance on Physical_Change. From your results, what can you conclude about the effectiveness of the programme in terms of improving physical wellbeing?
d) Using appropriate statistics, determine the effect of Age and Attendance on Psychological_Change. From your results, what can you conclude about the effectiveness of the programme in terms of improving psychological wellbeing?
e) Considering your answers to (a), (b), (c) and (d) above, what can you conclude about the effectiveness of the exercise referral scheme for improving physical and psychological wellbeing?
