Potential Quantitative

The potential study that would be conducted for collecting numerical data is finding the connection between healthy aging and having a marital partner (spouse) among older adults. It is the selected and proposed quantitative research topic for this paper to apply quantitative methods for the research. It would be primary quantitative research for which the data would be collected first-hand, rather than relying on the already available data.
Research Problem
The proposed research problem in the proposed research study is whether there is a connection between having a marital partner and spouse for healthy aging. It would be investigated whether there is a relationship between the existence of social relationships for male and female older adults to age healthily. Age comes with several diseases: hypertension, heart diseases, cardiovascular and chronic diseases, and mental diseases like Alzheimer's, depression or dementia, etc. Therefore, it is suggested that old age people should have strong social support, either that of their spouse or any other family or friend relation who should take care of them for healthy aging. Therefore, the objective of this proposed study would be to scrutinize whether there is a connection between the presence of a partner and healthy aging.
Literature Review
Aging successfully and having strong social relations, especially in the later parts of life, holds a strong place in older adults' lives. Aging successfully might encompass the physical and mental appropriate functioning of older adults without any diseases. Active participation in all matters of life with a strong social engagement is possible. Studies have indicated that married partners stand out as the strongest factor in supporting older adults in healthy aging (Wong & Waite, 2016). Partner relationships and strong social relations affect the health of older adults. Data was collected for adults aging 57 to 85 years, and it was concluded that marital loss has devastating effects on the health of men as compared to women since men need more support when they are alone in comparison with old females who have to look after their family and deal with emotional burdens. It was supported by finding that CRP levels (C-reactive protein), which is an indicator of chronic or acute inflammation was increased in divorced or widowed men and posed a health risk when they were on their own.
A study was conducted to assess the relationships between marriage, older adults' health, and mortality. The results revealed that the psychological state affected the health of men who were alone and were in more poor health condition than women who were living alone (Robards et al., 2012). Also, it was disclosed that cohort matters since the older adults born in the 1950s were in a more devastating health situation when divorced compared to those born in the 1940s. It could be related to the economic conditions of that time. In both cases, negative health outcomes were seen without a partner in old age.
A similar study was conducted to evaluate the effect of marital status on the quality of life in older age. A sample of 276 aging adults was taken from U.S. Mexico, and four domains were formulated for assessing their life quality: physical health, mental health, social relations, and environment (Gutierrez-Vega et al., 2018). It was found that married older adults had a higher and better quality of life that helped reduce their psychological distress compared to single older ones. It depicted that marital status guards against depression and mental illnesses are inevitable in old age.
The same factor has been corroborated in another article that mentioned that marriage provides a protective benefit for older adults since they feel safe in social, psychological, and physical health parameters. The society they live in becomes conducive to their better health (Schone & Weinick, 1998). The data was taken from the 1987 National Expenditure Survey, restricting the sample to only adults above 65 and who responded to self0administered questionnaires. In addition to the results that indicated that marriage has positive effects on older adults' health, the results were different for men. Men showed substantial negative outcomes if they were widowed or divorced in old age.
Along with marital status, another factor, an economic condition, was also studied among older adults in the Korean community. The investigation was carried out to examine the effects of marital status and economic condition on old adults' life satisfaction aging 50 years and above (Lee, Lee & Choi, 2020). It was concluded that men were more affected by marital status and its benefits as compared to women. Further, the effects of poor household income were moderated by the marital status, creating a subsequent impact on life satisfaction.
Use of Quantitative Methodology
The quantitative methodology would be used to inspect whether having a marital partner affects the health condition of both males and females. It would be assessed whether they are suffering from any physical or mental health condition or disorders, and having a life partner shows any signs of improvement in the disorder. However, the literature review has shown that the marital partner's existence poses a positive impact on the older adults and that too, specifically on the lives of old male adults, the current study would evaluate whether this still stands true in current times or not.
Purpose of Research Effort
The purpose of the research effort would be to quantify the data collected from the sample, including old adults, to scrutinize their healthy aging by linking it with marital status. The purpose is aligned with the research problem since it would examine whether life satisfaction is positively affected by having a life partner. Previous studies suggested that a life partner guarantees the other partner's protection, especially if they suffer from physical or mental illness. The partner would be there to take of them. Hence, the current research effort would be to determine the linkage between the two factors.
Research Questions
The research questions would be in alignment with the research problem. They would be as follows:
· Whether there is a connection between having a marital partner and healthy aging?
· Whether having a life partner improves life satisfaction among older adults?
· Whether having a spouse improves physical or mental health if the old adult is suffering from any ailment in old age, leading to a better quality of life?
Hypotheses
The proposed hypotheses for the potential quantitative research study are as follows:
Hypothesis 1: Is there any relation between marital status and healthy aging?
Hypothesis 2: Is there any relation between having a spouse and life satisfaction, leading to improved quality of life?
Population and Sample
The population would include the American older adults aging from 50 years and above. Also, the population would include those who have spouses, are either widowed or divorced. The sample could be extracted from this population from a specific state or city so that older adults aging 50 years and above, having spouses or without a spouse, are counted in. Also, there would be two samples: one would comprise of older adults with spouses. The other would consist of either divorced or widowed so that making comparison on their healthy aging could become easier. These would involve both men and women. Gender is not considered a distinguishing factor in this study for now, so that complications are avoided. The factors that would be focused on are only old age, healthy life, and marital status.
Recruitment of Participants
The older participants who are old and have or do not have spouses would be sampled from the neighborhood. This would be the preferred way of sampling since several older adults contact me and provide a suitable sample by falling into the selected category and its factors. Also, the preferred way of reaching out to them is talking to them personally when I visit the park for a walk early in the morning. I would talk to some of them personally to contact the ones in their extended network and convince them for a survey of my potential quantitative research study. I would personally provide them the survey with several questions about their marital status and its impact on their healthy life. Ethical considerations would be kept in mind by ensuring that their data would be kept private and their names would not be exposed. The survey would not require their names; only genders would be asked at the beginning of the survey. It is also considered an ethical factor for surveying that instead of asking the respondents' names, it is better to ask their gender only so that they are guaranteed that their names are not used.
Along with confidentiality, the ethical concern of informed consent would also be taken into account. Older adults that I am already acquainted with and who live in my neighborhood would certify them that the survey will be conducted only after their informed consent. The same surety would be carried forward to their connections. More individuals want to participate in the survey, and gaining thorough information could make the results valid and reliable.
Conclusion
The potential quantitative research study investigates whether having a life partner is conducive to healthy aging among older adults, specifically 50 years and above. This would be investigated by taking a sample of older adults with two categories: one sample consisting of those who have spouses and others who do not have one. Their life satisfaction parameters would be gauged through a survey, and the results would be quantified with the help of further analysis procedures.
References
Gutierrez-Vega, M., Villar, O.A.E., Carrillo-Saucedo, I.C. & Montanez-Alvarado, P. (2018). The possible protective effect of marital status in quality of life among elders in a U.S. Mexico border city. Community Mental Health Journal, 54, 480-484. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-017-0166-z
Lee, S., Lee, J. & Choi, I. (2020). Life satisfaction in later life: The interplay of marital condition and income among elderly Koreans. Sustainability, 12(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083483
Robards, J., Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J. & Vlanchantoni, A. (2012). Marital status, health, and mortality. Maturitas, 73(4), 295-299. DOI: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2012.08.007
Schone, B.S. & Weinick, R.M. (1998). Health-related behaviors and the benefits of marriage for elderly persons. The Gerontologist, 38(5), 618-627.
Wong, J.S. & Waite, L.J. (2016). Marriage, social networks, and health at older ages. Journal of Population Ageing, 8(1-2), 7-25. DOI: 10.1007/s12062-014-9110-y