Tma_03_K311

This essay will be divided in three sections: in the first part I will explain how I would design my research, in the second part, what type of data would I need to collect and why, and in the last part I will explain what type of research methodologies would I use and why. Multidisciplinary public health research takes place in different ways and settings, using a variety of methodologies; there many sources of information about health available to us, like for instance, books, internet or television, but not all of them are considerate trustworthy. When we carried out a health research, like in this case a cigarette-smoking behavior of young people, there is a particular process that we need to follow which is called the staged process. This process it is divided in seven stages, which are: existing literature, research question or topic, question about data and sources, research design, data collection, analysis and writing up (Chapter 7, p.215).  In the first stage I will look at all the available sources as any information will be helpful in conducting my research, for instance via local authority department, NHS Hospital library or the National Library for health. When we look for information it is helpful to use “The information searching process” mentioned in Chapter 7, p218, which is divided in six steps. In the first step of this process, I will need to ask to myself, what data is needed and what do I already know about the cigarette-smoking behavior of young people in my health district. Data is collected to help in assessing needs, to monitor ongoing projects and to assist you in evaluation. As I have been asked by the public health department to carry out some research to assess the smoking behavior in young people, I will need to find information like for instance, the percentage of young people smoking in that particular area, what it is the percentage difference between that health district and the neighborhood or what is the main reason for them to smoke.  Once this is done, I will be able to identify the key questions for my research, which will be more individual-focus like for example "On average how many cigarettes do you now smoke a day'" or "How old were you when you began to smoke cigarettes regularly'" Would these questions be asked in a face to face interview or by questionnaire' I will also need to use different sources to find the answers that I will need, to determine what response might be needed by the public health department to reduce the cigarette-smoking behavior of young people; health surveys, for instance can provide much needed information on numerous aspects of young smokers and they can provide answers like what it could be the reason for them to smoke.    Also collect data from local voices, focus groups, health forum, community profiling, or appraisals is helpful when conducting a research (Chapter 10, pp. 313-315). What information do you think you would get from these. They would be quite time consuming and may not be realistic. But as many sources are available, I will need to decide which one will be more useful for my research. Yes as you will probably have limited resources In chapter 7, p.225, we have different criteria to help people assess the information retrieved, who are: provenance, relevance, objectivity, method and timeliness.  Once I know which information and what questions I will want to use, I will need to ask myself if these are answerable and I will need to take in consideration ethical questions that I will need to address; the Economic and Social Research Council has six key principles that expects people to follow, when conducting a research. As they stated, researches should be designed, reviewed and undertaken to ensure integrity and quality. Also, the participants must be informed regarding the purpose of the research and the methods that will be used; they need to be reassure that all the information given will be treated with high confidentiality and that their identity will be kept anonymous. Research participants must feel free to answer the questions in a quite e reserve area.  At this point of my research I will need to decide which methodologies I would want to use and why; quantitative methods produce quantifiable, reliable data that are usually generalizable to some large population (Chapter 7, p.225). Usually it identifies numerical differences between groups of people, but doesn’t take in consideration people's feelings and experiences. Contrary qualitative methods provide the researcher with more specific data throughout direct contact with people under study, for instance using focus groups, observation or in-depth interviews. They produced rich, detailed data that doesn’t change participants’ views; the only concern is that qualitative method is time-consuming and not everyone agrees with this methodology. Very helpful is the following table which provides a good distinction between the two approaches: “Distinctive features of quantitative and qualitative approaches to psychology”:  Quantitative approaches Qualitative approaches 'Simple' numeric data 'Complex' rich data Measurement Meaning Explanation Understanding Prediction Interpretation Generalizable account Contextual account Representative population sample Purposive/ representative perspective sample Hypothesis-testing Exploratory Claims objectivity Accepts subjectivity Closed system (experimental control) Open system (ecological validity)   As the two methods have strengths and weakness, I will need to use both, which will complement each other; wrangles  (1996) argues for an integration of qualitative and quantitative methods for a process of “triangulation” which involves using more than one methodology (Chapter 7, p.226).  A further step needs to be taken in consideration, which is evaluation. As Rootman (2001) stated “Evaluation is the systematic examination and assessment of features of a programme or other intervention in order to produce knowledge that different stakeholders can use for a variety of purpose (Chapter 11, p.328).  Evaluation has two fundamental elements which are identify the criteria and meeting the information that would make possible to evaluate the extent to which these are being gathered. As mentioned before, it is not always easy to choose which information should be gathered, and will need to take in consideration ethical and methodological accounts, with an appropriate discussion. Katz (2000) proposed a “Evaluation cycle” who is divided in seven part, which are: decide what to evaluate, identify criteria, gather information, consider and discuss data, take decision, take action and then last stage which is begin again (Chapter 11, p.329). There are many reasons why I should evaluate, for example, to see what has been achieved, to find strengths and weakness, to criticize my own work, to improve our monitoring methods or to make our work more effective. Evaluation it is the last step of my research.  As we saw, data collection for public health research, can be done in different ways and can be a combination of different methods like quantitative and qualitative; in order to have an effective response to our research will need to be open to use different methodologies in order to gain as much information as possible, respecting the people involved and making sure the right questions are asked. We also need to take in consideration all the ethical issues that can come out from the research. Conducting a research it is not a one step only process, but it’s a combination of multiples steps; we need to be very careful in choosing what information are needed, where to get these and who should be interviewed about these information. When conducting a research, there are different bodies that except people, to respect their key principles, like the Economic and Social Research Council. Also we should take in consideration the ethical principles, which are: beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy and justice. But you also need to make sure that your research provides useful information to the public health department.