Community health advocacy project: designing data collection tools for population aggregation

¶ … Data Collection Tool Aggregate

Objective of this paper is to design the data collection tool to be used for the aggregate population. The study uses both survey and semi-structure interview as the data collection tools. The survey is used to collect demographic background of the participants while the study uses the semi-structured interview to collect the health issues of participants.

Data Collection Technique Used

This study uses the mixed method as data collection tool for the aggregate population. The mixed method will combine the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative data collection method to understand the aggregate population. The survey technique is a data collection-gathering tool used to collect data from large population. The quantitative research often uses a survey technique to collect data, and the descriptive statistics are used for the analysis. The results are presented in tables, graphs and charts. A major benefit of survey technique for a data collection is that it could be used to collect data from a large number of people. The survey could also be used to compare control group, and it is fast, appropriate for a researcher with limited resources. Major shortcoming of survey is that it does not allow a researcher to immense in the natural environment of the sample population.

The shortcoming identified in the survey data collection tool makes this paper to consider qualitative research collection method. The qualitative data collection uses the interview to obtain the feedback from participants. Major benefits of qualitative data collection method are that it allows a researcher to collect rich data from participants. Moreover, the researcher will be able to understand the participants better because the data will be collected from their natural environment. Major shortcoming of qualitative research is that it is time-consuming and sometimes expensive. It is not appropriate for a researcher with limited resources.

Design of Data Collection Tool

The data collection tool consists of two parts. The first part collects the demographic background of participants, which include name, birth date, gender, ethnicity, employment status and educational level. The second part of the questionnaire focuses on the health issues consistence with the goals of Health 2020. (USDHHS, 2009).

PART ONE

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA COLLECTION TOOL

Instruction to Fill the Data

The purpose of this survey is to collect your demographic background intended to be used for the research purpose. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part collects your demographic background such as name, age, gender, marital status, number of children, employment status, ethnicity, citizenship and educational background.

The second part is a semi-structured questionnaire designed to collect your health issues.

Please, try to be as objective as possible when answering the questions. You should highlight the answer that is appropriate to you in the first part. All the answers supplied will be highly confidential and will not be supplied to the third party. All the answers supplied will be used for the research purpose only.

Question

Select an Answer from the Option

AGE

Under age 20

Age 20- 29

Age 30 or older

GENDER

Male

Female

MARITAL STATUS

Married

Single

Separated

Divorced

NUMBER OF CHILDREN

EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Working full time

Working Part time

Unemployed

ETHINICITY

White

Hispanic

Non-Hispanic Black

Other

CITIZENSHIP

American

Foreign born

EDUCATION

No high school degree

High school diploma/GED

Post-graduate degree

Designing of Data Collection Tool for Health Issues

This section uses the qualitative data collection tool to collect data on the health issues of the participants, and the study uses the semi-structured interview to collect data. Harden, et al. (2009) use both the quantitative and qualitative data collection tool to asses the unintended pregnancy in the United Kingdom. The focus of their research is to enhance interventions to address the social disadvantages associated with the early pregnancy and parenthood.

The United States and United Kingdom have high teenage pregnancy rate compared to other countries, and the outcome of the early pregnancy among the teenage is adverse health effect and social outcomes. Typically, the UK teenage pregnancy is the highest in Europe, and social disadvantages associated with early parenthood and pregnancy includes poverty, unemployment, and discrimination. However, teenage pregnancy is distributed unequally based on the socio-demographic characteristics.

The authors use the statistical meta-analysis for the quantitative data collection tool. The authors also undertake the themal-synthesis of qualitative studies that provides investigation of early childhood of young people in the United Kingdom. The authors collect data from 12 electronic bibliographic database reference lists from qualified journals, and five key journals. The five qualitative studies are part of the data sources. The results reveal that three main themes associated with the early parenthood include:

Dislike of school, unhappy childhood and,

Low expectations for the future.

The outcome of the research provides reliable evidence that youth development programmes and early childhood intervention are the effective strategies to prevent the early pregnancy and parenthood among teenagers.

Finer and Zolna, (2011) also discuss that unintended pregnancy is the most health status in the reproductive health, and the goal of the "U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is to reduce unintended pregnancy." (P 1). Finer et al. (2011) collect data from the 2008 national survey of abortion patients, 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and National Center for Health Statistics. The findings reveal that 49% of pregnancies were unintended and the unintended pregnancies increase to 52 per 1000 among women between aged 15 and 44. Typically, the unintended pregnancies are associated with health issues such as abortion, and miscarriage.

Based on the health problem facing teenagers and young women because of the unintended pregnancies, Healthy People 2020 (USDHHS, 2009) sets broad national health policy development and agenda that will assist in addressing the challenges countries face with the management of health problem. The focus of Health people 2020 is to target adolescents with regard to health programs to increase the number of adolescents aged between 13 and 17 who have never had sexual intercourse.

Based on the review of the literature, the study design the second part of the data collection using semi-structured interview.

Part Two: HEALTH ISSUES