Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH AND REPORT WRITING 1

Business Research and Report Writing

Name:

Institution:
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Introduction

Nutrition is a requirement for everyone to live a healthy life. Despite the mass production

of food, many individuals are hungry around the world as evident in the case study among

university students in Victoria. Today, it is more likely to acquire cheap, unhealthy food rather

than the expensive healthy food among students who have inadequate funds to sustain

themselves in the changing food insecurity. Many health issues are resulting from food

insecurity; obesity, heart diseases as well as leading to high levels of emotional, and academic

problems among students who seem to be more anxious. Food insecurity in today’s society is

associated with poverty. As students join universities, they become independent whereby they

rent or share houses. As a result, cost of living and utility lead to stress in the economy and

money becomes inefficient in the purchase of nutritious food. Thus, food insecurity among

students is a menace that reflects on how it affects the entire society and country in general.

However, tertiary students are the most vulnerable group to food insecurity, unlike the whole

population as depicted in the article.

Purpose of the article

The research conducted among students in an institution in Victoria focused on

determining the seriousness, prevalence and the causes of food insecurity among tertiary

students. Among the research questions asked included; did you cut weight due to lack of enough

money to purchase food? Did you starve yourself whole day due to lack of enough funds? Were

you hungry but never ate since you never had money? Did you decrease the size of your meal

because of lack of funds? The study conducted tried to explain the status and prevalence of food

insecurity. It focused on finding reasons that hindered students from acquiring healthy and
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adequate food, such as level of income, living arrangement, as well as inadequate funding from

the government.

Methodology

The cross-sectional design, which employed the use of a questionnaire was used for the

research. The sample used comprised of 124 students attending Deakin University and was

conducted in the year 2012. For ethical purposes, the students under the age of 18 years were

excluded from the study. The self-reported questionnaire required the students to indicate their

characteristics and eating behaviors. To avoid bias, the term ‘food insecurity’ was not included

during the recruitment process. The faculty of Health Human Ethics Advisory Group at Deakin

University approved the study after having established that it does not breach the ethical rules.

The recruitment process, which lasted for four weeks, employed techniques such as posters,

bulletins and information flyers to catch the attention of students in the campus.

Findings and conclusion

At the end of the study, several findings were made as listed below. First, 18 percent of

the students were noted to experience food insecurity without hunger. Second, 30 percent of the

students were reported to experience food insecurity with hunger which is the more grave type of

food insecurity. Third, students living with their family were reported to having a lower

probability of food insecurity while those receiving support from the government were reported

to have a higher odd of being food insecure. The conclusion derived from the study is that food

insecurity is majorly pronounced in the tertiary learning institutions and the primary reason for
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this observation is that the students are not living with their parents (Massaquoi, Tarawally,

Bangali & Kandeh, 2014). Having identified that food insecurity in tertiary institutions is one of

the intractable problems facing students, the government should purpose to regulate the prices of

the food sold in the tertiary institutions along with providing more financial support (Roy, Kelly,

Rangan & Allman-Farinelli, 2015). By doing so, food insecurity within the tertiary institutions

will be no more.

Audience

The article reflects on food insecurity among university students. Hence, its primary

audience is the higher educational institutes. The findings would be of importance to the bodies

as they would be in a position to come up with measures to regulate or control food insecurity in

the educational institutions (Otsuka, 2013). The findings reflect on what causes food insecurity

among tertiary students, and how best the institutions would come up with measures to eradicate

the menace by availing enough food in the institutions.

The government may also be an interested audience to the findings. The article would be

of assistance for the government agencies to predict or determine food insecurity within the

country (Patton-López, López-Cevallos, Cancel-Tirado, & Vazquez, 2014). This would help

make them predict the future and come up with strategies to lower food insecurity for example

by putting more land under cultivation and supporting local farmers to produce high quantity and

quality food.

Critical Analysis
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Identifying the right audience is of importance in analyzing the article. This article is of

good value as it reflects on the problems that students face in regarding food insecurity

(Gundersen, & Ziliak, 2014). It comes up with the rightful recommendations on how the

institutions, as well as the government, would resolve the problem. The article also reflects on

the government as an audience to the report, giving a slight insight on how it would use it to

think about food security nationally.

Interest

This article is of great concern to the institution and government as it reflects on a current

problem of food insecurity which needs urgent redress. Besides the institutional bodies, an

individual can gain interest in the article, to understand the rate of food insecurity encountered in

the country. This article is well written and can be used in organizational analysis as it shows the

level that an organization has reached in managing its food security.

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References

Gundersen, C., & Ziliak, J. P. (2014). Childhood food insecurity in the US: Trends, causes, and

policy options. The Future of Children, 24(2), 1-19.

Massaquoi, S. B., Tarawally, F., Bangali, E., & Kandeh, J. B. A. (2014). Impact of tertiary

education institutions on rural agricultural communities in Sierra Leone. Afr educ dev

issues, 6, 103-128.

Micevski, D. A., Thornton, L. E., & Brockington, S. (2014). Food insecurity among university

students in Victoria: A pilot study. Nutrition & dietetics, 71(4), 258-264.

Otsuka, K. (2013). Food insecurity, income inequality, and the changing comparative advantage

in world agriculture. Agricultural Economics, 44(s1), 7-18.

Patton-López, M. M., López-Cevallos, D. F., Cancel-Tirado, D. I., & Vazquez, L. (2014).

Prevalence and correlates of food insecurity among students attending a midsize rural

university in Oregon. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 46(3), 209-214.

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Roy, R., Kelly, B., Rangan, A., & Allman-Farinelli, M. (2015). Food environment interventions

to improve the dietary behavior of young adults in tertiary education settings: a

systematic literature review. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 115(10),

1647-1681.