You are an expert in health working for the health authority in Bradlington, the largest city in the county of Eastfolk in the Northern European country of Pinkland. As part of the biennial national Health Survey in Pinkland

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22 Jun 2026 • 7 min read

You need to work on this dataset for your assignment, analyze the data, interpret the results and prepare a technical report of the findings. PG Research Methods for Health Sciences 1: 07HMNT015W SPSS Assignment: Data Analysis and Technical Report Writing – British dataset

Introduction to the assessment and learning outcomes This assessment for this module requires the analysis and interpretation of a dataset, using SPSS, and the preparation of a written report of the results and the analyses.

This assessment has the following learning outcomes:

To increase your understanding of statistical techniques

To build your confidence in using statistical software - SPSS

To gain skills in sourcing and retrieving health and epidemiological information

To help you acquire the skills necessary to write a technical report.

Background to the assessment Scope You will be provided with one dataset - Pinkland 1 - in SPSS format. The data is derived from the Health Survey for England. You need to work on this dataset for your assignment, analyze the data, interpret the results and prepare a technical report of the findings.

Context for your report

You are an expert in health working for the health authority in Bradlington, the largest city in the county of Eastfolk in the Northern European country of Pinkland. As part of the biennial national Health Survey in Pinkland, data were collected over a 2-month period to assess the health status of adults. No analysis of these data has been published yet. Your current job in the health authority is to report to the Chief Executive of Bradlington Health Authority on the findings from Eastfolk county.

The Chief Executive has had no training in health statistics. They have little time for reading, so your report must be very clear and written in a simple style. At the same time, they will be making decisions related to whether a new health programme or policy initiative is needed in Eastfolk. Thus, the report must give a complete and accurate picture of the situation.

3) Instructions Remember that for the purposes of writing your report, the data you will be provided in SPSS format are from the above fictitious country even though you know that in real life the data are from England.

While you may wish to discuss ideas with other students about how to analyze the data, it is essential that you write up your results individually. Working together on your written work is considered plagiarism and is an academic assessment offence. Serious penalties may be imposed on those found to have colluded in this way.

You must carefully consider which of the outputs from SPSS are necessary to include in the report. Do not cut and paste tables directly from the SPSS output files without editing out superfluous text and figures. Edit the charts to make them reader-friendly. Round p values to 3 decimal places and all the rest to 2 decimal places.

You can choose to analyze your data and present your findings in different ways – this is to be expected, there is no one single correct approach. It is for you to decide what the appropriate methods are for analyzing the data.

The criteria for passing this assessment are as follows (also see the Table below and the rubric uploaded onto blackboard):

appropriate analysis

appropriate means of presentation

the style of the report is polished, fluent, comprehensible, simple, concise, logical and systematic

the report provides a brief overview of a key policy area of interest to the Chief Executive of Bradlington to inform decision making

Process for data analysis and for reporting of the findings Descriptive statistics Summarise the demographic characteristics of the sample in terms of age, sex, ethnicity and marital status. You should treat age as a continuous variable.

Summarise the socio-economic variables relating to occupational and educational status.

Summarise the contextual variables, such as car ownership, family size and limiting longstanding illness.

Create a new continuous variable BMI from the values of weight and height. Then summarise the continuous data: BMI, weight and height.

Create a new categorical variable from BMI, in order to give prevalence rates of overweight and obesity, using the threshold values of 18.5, 25, 30 & 40 as follows:

18.5 – 24.99 normal

≥25.00 overweight

30.00 - 34.99 obese class 1

35.00 - 39.99 obese class 2

≥40.00 obese class 3

Remember, when appropriate, you will need to include measures of central tendency and spread (standard deviation or IQR) and to report confidence intervals.

Analytical statistics Investigate the association of BMI with age, sex, car ownership, educational status and socioeconomic status. For the analytical statistics use BMI and age as continuous variables and not as categorical variables.

Report writing and key references to be included Technical reports are briefing documents written by technical experts on specific topics for decision-makers (often civil servants, programme managers or administrators). They are commissioned to provide information on specific questions or issues and to provide a basis for decision-making and action. As such they should put forward all the relevant facts and set out the relevant issues.

The aim is to inform the reader sufficiently to enable them to understand the reasons for and implications of any decisions and subsequent actions that they take. Personal views should not bias the report. You should assume that the person you are writing for is intelligent and proficient, but busy, and also not an expert in relation to the issue in hand.

As a minimum, the report you are writing about your findings for the Chief Executive of Bradlington should provide estimates of the prevalence of overweight and obesity for the target group and identify the factors that contribute most to this. The scheme outlined in the table below specifies the marks available for each section.

Table 1: Guidance on the structure and weighting of your technical report Structure of report, and scheme for weighting of marks

Section

% of marks assigned

Summary

I Introduction

II Methods and sampling and data collection

III Methods of data analysis

IV Findings

V Discussion/conclusion/recommendation

VI References

Reports are expected to follow the following structure: Summary (20%) is essential because for many of the “audience”, the summary is the only section they read. It must contain clear and concise information with materials required to make decisions. It should highlight

the purpose of the research or what problem does it address;

the methodology so what was done to address the issue e.g. data collection;

the results, so key significant findings;

the conclusions, so what do the results mean and

the recommendations so what actions are advised based on the key findings.

Introduction (10%) should set out the health and epidemiological context for the findings which follow and clearly state the aims and objectives of your analyses. Refer to one or two key sources to explain why health surveys such as the one you are given are needed in general. Refer to the background document *National Centre for Health Research (2012) 2011 Health Survey of Pinkland – Summary of Methodology (Unpublished report) Nodnol: National Centre for Health Research to explain the context for this particular health survey. Also provide a brief situation report of the obesity/overweight health situation in Pinkland, based on true data from England in 2006/2008 and current. As a rough guide, a maximum of five sources should be used for this. Provide the full references to these sources in your reference list (ignore the fact that the country name is inconsistent with the country name in the background document). Use the most recent and reliable data/sources that you can to support current data for England.

You will need to consult this link to obtain the prevalence of overweight and obesity for the year 2006/2008:

*International Association for the Study of Obesity (2008): https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet-england-2008

Methods of sampling and data collection (5%) – you will need to briefly summarise the background document outlining the methods of sampling and data collection and reference it as follows:

*National Centre for Health Research (2012) “2011 Health Survey of Pinkland” – Summary of Methodology (Unpublished report) Nodnol: National Centre for Health Research.

Methods of data analysis (10%) – you will need to describe all methods of data analysis you used for your analysis and reference the statistical software you used, and possibly a statistics textbook. You will also need to refer to key documents to justify the cut-off points used to define categories of BMI. We suggest:

*WHO (2000) Obesity, Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic. WHO Technical Report Series 894. Geneva, WHO

Findings (30%) see section 3 & 4 Discussion/conclusion/recommendation (20%): This is the heart of the report, and it should be more than descriptive. This is where you are commenting on your findings in terms of their broader significance – what do they mean? You need to relate your findings to the wider scientific literature - for instance, do your findings confirm or refute the findings of others? Is there a significant association between overweight/obesity and any of the factors provided in the data? How can the prevalence of obesity and overweight be explained in light of your correlation test results? What additional factors should be considered to better control the prevalence of obesity/overweight?

Here you should refer back to the literature reviewed in your introduction and develop a narrative that clarifies how, by 2024/2025, our understanding of obesity/overweight has progressed compared to 2011. Identify the additional contributing factors highlighted in the more recent literature – those that were less understood in 2011. Finally, propose an interventional strategy you will recommend moving forward.

You will also need to compare your rates of overweight and obesity with those compiled by the following:

or by

*WHO: http://www.who.int/gho/ncd/risk_factors/overweight_obesity/bmi_trends_adults/en/

In your conclusion you should synthesise the key points, stress why your research should matter to the reader. Ensure that your conclusion is justified by the evidence you present.

As part of your recommendation, you should provide a brief overview of a key policy area of interest to the Chief Executive of Bradlington to inform decision making.

Word count and submission guidelines Total word count = 1000 words (excluding tables, figures and references). You should submit an electronic copy of your report by 1pm on 11th December 2025 via Turnitin.

The text must be in font Calibri, 1.5 spacing with font size 12 in the text and no less than 11 in tables and figures. Margin size is your choice. Mark will be weighted using the scheme in table 1 above. Each section of the report will be given a mark using the rubric shown on blackboard. Then the weighted marks will be added to give a total mark for the assessment. All submissions will be marked anonymously so you do not show your names on your submissions, instead you will need to indicate in Turnitin submission title box the dataset you have analysed (e.g. Pinkland). If you have a reasonable adjustment form (e.g., marking guidelines for dyslexia), include your statement at the top of your first page. State your word count and do not exceed the total word count specified above.

Recommended sources of guidance for analysis, reporting findings and writing Willis, J. (2004) Data Analysis and Presentation Skills: An Introduction for the Life and Medical Sciences. Wiley Blackwell

Guidelines for reporting statistics: http://my.ilstu.edu/~jhkahn/apastats.html

Writing reports: https://www.idrc.ca/sites/default/files/sp/Documents%20EN/resources/idrc-guidelines-for-preparing-final-technical-reports.pdf

Please do contact the module leader if you have any questions regarding the assessment.

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