17) Why would you describe your diet like this?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
18) Do you eat five portions of fruit and veg. every day?
Yes No
19) The NHS 5 A day campaign says “Fruit and vegetables can help keep your body fitter, healthier and happier.” What do you think?
Strongly Agree Agree Don’t know Disagree Strongly Disagree
Exercise
20) The AS level for AQA Health and Social care textbook states, “The most potent combination to avoid weight gain is a combination of physical exercise and a health diet.” Do you take part in physical exercise?
Yes No
(If no move on to 21 if yes move on to 22)
21) Why do you not take part in any physical exercise?
Illness Time Money Lack of knowledge other
(Move on to question 26)
22) What exercise do you take part in?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
23) How many times per week do you do this?
24) Do you feel you have benefited from taking part in physical exercise?
Yes No
25) Why do you think this?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Monitoring weight
26) Do you regularly monitor your weight?
Yes No
(If no move on to question 27 if yes move on to 28)
27) Why do you prefer not to monitor you weight?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(Now move to question 30)
28) Has there been a sudden weight loss or gain in the past 6 months?
No Weight Gain Weight Loss
(If no move on to question 29)
29) Has your diet changed for this to occur?
Yes No
Alcohol consumption
30) How many units of alcohol do you consume in one week?
0 units 0-10 units 11-20 units 21-30 units 31-40 units 41+ units
31) Do you:
-
Drink every day and space these units out in the week
- Drink this on just one night in the week
-
Drink this on a couple of days in the week
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
32) Have you increased or decreased the amount of alcohol you drink over the past 6 months?
Increased
Decreased
Visiting your GP
33) Have you visited the GP within the last 6 months?
Yes No
(If yes move on to 34, if no move on to question 35)
34) Would you mind disclosing a reason for this visit?
Minor Serious Just a check up Prefer not to say
35) Rate the following as to what is most important to you. 1 being the most important, 6 being the least important. (Fill number in box)
Not smoking
Eating a healthy diet
Visiting the GP
Monitoring Weight
Limiting alcohol consumption
Taking part in physical exercise
Thank you for filling in this questionnaire!
Analysis
Within my questionnaire I included a variety of questions that I feel are very effective because it meant that the respondents wouldn’t get bored with every question being the same. It was also easy to fill out with the use of mostly tick-box questions as I was making sure that it would not be too time consuming and wouldn’t drive the respondents away. I also included reference questions in which I used quote from experts on certain aspects of health and asked respondents to say whether they agree and/or write their view towards the statements, this helped me to decide what types of view people had on these aspects and compare each others answers. Another type of question I asked at the end of my questionnaire was a question in which respondents were asked to rate how important each of the six life factors were to them this helps me to see how different people feel towards each of the life factors and what is most important to them.
To analyse the data I’ve received I intend to separate the results into groups. These groups will be the concepts of health and ill health and the six lifestyle factors; smoking, diet, exercise, monitoring weight, alcohol consumption and visiting the GP. I will also show the BMI of each individual and compare it to his or her answers.
Health and ill health:
Out of the six respondents four of them had a holistic view on health, respondent 6 had a negative view on health and respondent 5 ticked all boxes in item 9 but in item 7 they are shown to have a negative view of health when asked to describe being healthy. I think that the view given by respondent 5 (“for being 76 years old I don’t get colds. I have no illness of any kind”) could be explained by his age and possibly the lack of knowledge he may have on a subject like this compared to someone like respondent 2 who works in health care so will have the knowledge of health to give a different answer. Respondent 2 answered this question by saying “I would agree with the well-balanced physical mental and emotional well-being statement” I think this shows the knowledge this respondent has on this subject.
Half the people asked in this questionnaire gave a view of ill health being subjective. The view of these respondents could be due to the lack of knowledge on all parts and knowing ill health as anything other than feeling unwell. Respondent 1 answered by saying “ill health is not feeling as you normally feel and not being able to do the things you usually can do” I think the reason for this answer is the fact, like stated before, respondent 1 will have a lack of knowledge on this subject as he has I assume that he will have never really studied into any great detail the subject of ill-health.
Smoking:
Of the six respondents, two of them were smokers; this helped me to get views of smoking from both smokers and non-smokers. The smokers feel that smoking should not be banned in public places and feel it is their right to smoke wherever they want. Respondent 6 said “their should be specific places for non smokers and smokers. Equal rights for all.” I decided to compare this view with a non-smoker to find out what they think. I found that they all pretty much feel the same respondent 3 believes that “it stops non-smokers from suffering.” All four non-smokers also feel that if a smoker smokes around them they will feel uncomfortable and wouldn’t like it.
Diet
Looking at the data received for this section of the questionnaire I found that I did not get a variety of results. Five out of six of the respondents would describe their diet as quite healthy, respondent 4 gave a different answer, she described her diet as sometimes healthy sating that “I sometimes eat take-away’s and junk food” she also does not eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day isn’t sure about the statement included in question 18. I think the answers respondent 4 gives in this section and other section gives and indication to the lifestyle in which she leads, a lifestyle that is similar to most people of her age. Respondent 2 was one of the five respondents who would describe their diet as quite healthy, she states that she “tries to buy and consume a balanced and healthy diet most of the time.” I think the reason for the respondent 2 feeling this way is indicated by the amount of knowledge she will have on this subject due to working in health care.
Exercise:
In question 20 I use a quote from the AS level textbook about taking part in physical exercise, I then ask whether the respondents take part in any physical exercise themselves. Four out of the six respondents answered yes. The two that answered no were respondents 3 and 4; both of them say that the reason not to take part in physical exercise was time. I think because both are young they will believe that there are better things they can be doing with their time than exercising and these views may change in years to come.
Respondent 6 answered yes to question 20 and the exercise she takes part in is “walk the dog for 20 mins every day. Use exercise machines as often as possible,” I believe that because respondent 6 is a smoker it is important to take part in physical exercise and also to eat a balanced diet in order to keep the rest of their body healthy
Monitoring Weight:
Before analysing the respondent’s answers to the questions about monitoring weight I compared the respondents BMI and will compare it with their diet.
BMI:
Respondent 1- OK
Respondent 2- OK
Respondent 3- OK
Respondent 4- OK- Over weight
Respondent 5- OK
Respondent 6- OK
Because none of the respondents are over weight and all on the OK part of the chart it is hard to write an analysis without a variety of results but I intend to compare this to the respondents diets and also to their views on monitoring weight.
Another factor of this section of the questionnaire is the fact that none of the respondents regularly monitor their weight; they feel there is no need unless clothes do not fit properly. Respondent 3’s view on monitoring health is “there is no need unless I have an illness” I think this view is shred by all respondents so I feel it would have been better, especially for this part of the questionnaire to have more people taking part as I may have received a variety of results and I would be able to compare the results of these six respondents with people who are over weight or obese.
Alcohol consumption:
The results regarding alcohol consumption were quite varied, I have results from respondent 5 who does not drink any alcohol in a week, results from respondent 1 who drinks 41+ units of alcohol within a week and then results from respondents who are in the middle. Respondents 1 and 6 both declare that they space the number of units they drink in a week out (respondent 6 drinks 21-30 units), both of these respondents have decreased the amount of alcohol they drink within the last 6 months, although not asked I think that the reason for this to occur could be the increase in coverage the media has shown of the effects of alcohol on your body. However respondent 4 has increased the amount of alcohol she drinks over the past 6 months I think this could be because of her age and how common it is for people of her age to go out and binge drink.
Within this section I feel it would have been beneficial to ask peoples views on alcohol consumption because of the variety of results I received and also the variety of ages of the respondents.
Visiting the GP:
I feel that there is not a lot I could have asked regarding this factor but I found that five out of the six respondents had visited their GP within the last six months but in the case of four out of the five respondents the reason for visiting their GP was minor respondent 2 chose to answer ‘prefer not to say’ to this question. In order to write more regarding this section of the questionnaire I think that if would have been beneficial to ask a question that helped me to find out people views on visiting the GP this way I would be able to compare the answers more effectively.
Importance of six lifestyle factors:
In my last question I asked the respondents to rate the lifestyle factors by what they thought to be most important to them. Below I have included tables that show the most and least important lifestyle factors to the respondents.
Evaluation
I think that my questionnaire has been quite effective although it would have been more beneficial to ask more people as I would have gained a more varied group of results and may have been able to analyse some sections more effectively.
I would say that out of all of the questions on the questionnaire the questions about physical exercise and eating sensibly worked best as I had more questions about theses lifestyle factors and was therefore able to obtain better results. I feel that the questions on monitoring weight and visiting the GP did not work so well as I did not receive a varied result about monitoring weight due to the amount of people I asked and I could not think of many questions to ask about visiting the GP.
I think that the closed questions, which I had more of, worked a lot better that the open questions as the open questions were not always answered and the closed questions gave the respondents options so they were able to answer more effectively. I also think that due to the number of closed questions I had to the amount of open questions I had was an advantage as I feel they made people feel more comfortable in answering questions.
Bibliography:
AS level for AQA Health and Social care
Neil Moonie
Heinemann 2005
