1. For this assignment, you will be using a small subset of a real-life dataset obtained from the Framingham Heart Study.
Background
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and serious illness in the United States. In 1948, the Framingham Heart Study – under the direction of the National Heart Institute (now known as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute or NHLBI) – embarked on an ambitious project in health research. At the time, little was known about the general causes of heart disease and stroke, but the death rates for CVD had been increasing steadily since the beginning of the century and had become an American epidemic. The Framingham Heart Study became a joint project of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and Boston University.
Objective
The objective of the Framingham Heart Study was to identify the common factors or characteristics that contribute to CVD by following its development over a long period of time in a large group of participants who had not yet developed overt symptoms of CVD or suffered a heart attack or stroke. The researchers recruited 5,209 men and women between the ages of 30 and 62 from the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, and began the first round of extensive physical examinations and lifestyle interviews that they would later analyze for common patterns related to CVD development. Since 1948, the subjects have continued to return to the study every two years for a detailed medical history, physical examination, and laboratory tests, and in 1971, the study enrolled a second generation – 5,124 of the original participants’ adult children and their spouses – to participate in similar examinations. In April 2002 the Study entered a new phase: the enrollment of a third generation of participants, the grandchildren of the original cohort. This step is of vital importance to increase our understanding of heart disease and stroke and how these conditions affect families. Over the years, careful monitoring of the Framingham Study population has led to the identification of the major CVD risk factors – high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes, and physical inactivity – as well as a great deal of valuable information on the effects of related factors such as blood triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels, age, gender, and psychosocial issues. With the help of another generation of participants, the Study may close in on the root causes of cardiovascular disease and help in the development of new and better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease.
Citation: Author: The Framingham Heart Study
Publisher/Source: The NHLBI Biologic Specimen and Data Repository Information Coordinating Center (BioLINCC).
(Source: Amy S. Nowacki, “Framingham Didactic Dataset”, TSHS Resources Portal (2015). Available at https://www.causeweb.org/tshs/framingham-didactic/).
What you need to do for Question 1:
A dataset containing observations on 100 participants (each row represents a patient) from the Framingham Heart Study is available on Canvas (Assignment 1_dataset.xls located in the Assignment 1 folder). It consists of measurements of three variables (excluding ID, which is a patient identifier); note that each column represents a variable.
Please follow these instructions for importing data into SPSS.
Calculate descriptive statistics (mean, median, standard deviation) for each of the variables: serum cholesterol (scl), mg/100 ml; age at baseline exam, years; and body mass index (bmi), kg/m2. In addition, calculate the 95% confidence interval for each variable (you must show your work). Write a brief paragraph to summarize/state your results; in your paragraph, make sure to provide an interpretation of the 95% confidence interval for each variable, and to also comment on the skewness (if any) of the distribution of each variable. Please include your SPSS output as part of the same Word file that you submit.
Grading: 9 marks total. Correct analyses and a clearly written summary paragraph including all required information is necessary for a grade of 9/9. Errors in analysis (including rounding) or interpretation, or failing to include relevant information (e.g., units, SPSS output) will result in a lower score.
Deductions:
• For each variable: If incorrect rounding on just one value, then deduct .5; if incorrect rounding on more than one value, then deduct 1 mark.
• For each variable: If incorrect units or no units provided on just one value, then deduct .5; if incorrect units or no units provided on more than one value, then deduct 1 mark.
• If relevant SPSS output not included, then deduct 1 mark.
• Word count over 200 words: 1 mark
2. Find the following open-access article through the Ontario Tech library, search the article title in Google Scholar or click on the link below:
Marashi MY, Nicholson E, Ogrodnik M, Fenesi B, Heisz JJ (2021) A mental health paradox:
Mental health was both a motivator and barrier to physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0239244. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239244
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