Research Design and Statistics The Research Project

The title of the project is:
Intake of alternative and novel sources of protein among adult consumers aged 18–65 years.
You are being asked to produce a report which addresses this issue of protein intake.
We have provided you with the following:
1. A questionnaire on protein intake and habits
This was developed, circulated, and completed by 453 subjects. The questionnaire was designed to collect a combination of categorical and numerical data, thereby enabling descriptive statistics which describe the
study population prior to testing the hypothesis.
2. Complete dataset in
This data was gathered, coded, and entered into Excel for you – YOU WILL NEED TO TRANSFER THE DATA TO SPSS IN ORDER TO COMPLETE YOUR ANALYSIS
3. A Coding document
This document provides you with an explanation for each question in the questionnaire, in terms of how the answers were coded and explains what the coded answers in the dataset refer to.
To complete this project, please CHOOSE ONE of the following research questions:
a) Does the frequency and type of protein rich food consumption vary depending on eating pattern (meat eater v non-meat eater)
Using the data provided, examine questions such as:
What are the main sources of protein and what are the consumption habits within each eating pattern?
Is there a difference between age and gender?
Is there any association between eating pattern and BMI?
Are there any differences in the motivations between protein choice across the eating patterns?
Is there any correlation between knowledge of the recommended protein intake and eating pattern?
b) Could knowledge affect behavior when it comes to protein intake? Is there any association between the awareness of the recommended protein intake and choice of protein rich food source/frequency of consumption?
Using the data provided, examine questions such as:
Do consumers know the recommended intake of protein?
Is this influenced by their education level, age, gender….?
Does knowledge reflect their consumption habits? (Type and frequency)
Are those that know the recommended intake more likely to consume a certain kind of protein food or adopt a certain eating pattern?
Do those that know the recommended intake have a healthier BMI?
c) Is consumer health consciousness a major influence on the consumption of alternative/novel protein foods?
Using the data provided, examine questions such as:
How does exercise level influence protein consumption (type and frequency)?
Are there any differences between age, gender?
Do those adults with a healthy BMI consume protein rich foods more frequently than those that are overweight and obese? Do they consume more alternative/novel protein foods?
What influences protein consumption?
Are specific products more likely to be consumed within age or gender?
Is there any correlation between knowledge of the recommended protein intake and consumption of fortified protein food frequency
YOUR PROJECT REPORT:
With a lower word limit of 2000 words (and no upper limit), the report must contain the following sections:
1. Abstract
2. Background & Literature review – using a UCD One Search and/or Web of Science to find relevant literature, you must conduct your own literature review on the subject.
The following link brings you to a tutorial from the UCD library on how to conduct a literature review:
How to Write a Literature Review
3. Method – in addition to anything further that you might wish to add, you should mention here that the
questionnaire had been designed and completed online by 453 participants. Ethical approval was applied for, and an exemption granted. The questionnaire was completed anonymously. The responses were coded, entered into Excel, and then transferred to SPSS for statistical analysis.
4. Results – before you conduct any detailed statistical analysis, it’s important to perform descriptive statistics to present a good description of the demographics of the population studied – e.g., use Age, Gender,
Education, and BMI etc. to describe what the population looked like. In this section of the report, you need to conduct all relevant statistical analyses to address the questions in the hypothesis you have chosen.
5. Conclusions – This final section of the report is your conclusion, where you pull all of the above together and discuss the results in a context of the research question you have chosen.
6. References: All references should be provided in a Bibliography at the end of the report.