Submit Draft of an Abbreviated Mixed Methods Research Plan for (Health disparities are a growing
concern in the U.S. There are also a significant proportion of people with limited or no health insurance
which may prevent them from receiving adequate health care, medication, and the use preventative
measures such as exercise and diet. How would you address this issue?)
What are your research questions? To what extent can you test them? How would you justify the viability
of your questions?
What are your hypotheses? How would you test them?
Why would this design be the most appropriate for answering the research questions? Conversely, why
would quantitative or qualitative on their own not be appropriate?
For a mixed methods design, which design is the primary one? Why is that appropriate?
Abbreviated mixed research method
In us, a person’s health is determined by socio-economic status, risk factors and their
ability to access health care. The disease burden, increased disability and mortality affect the
population disproportionally. Luckily, public health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid
health insurance program have significantly reduced the burden by offering subsidized medical
care to low income households. However, immigrants have difficulty in accessing such public
programs due to the legislative restrictions. For instance, 83.5% of self-inflicted injuries
reported cases were among non-Hispanic whites. In 2009, Native ethnic group reported the
highest motor vehicle related mortality rates. Additionally, 2004 CDC analysis of infant
mortality rate reported considerable disparities. The trend is projected to increase by two folds if
no interventions are put in place (Vargas & Chen, 2014).
Mixed research approaches entail the combination of quantitative and qualitative research
methods in one investigation. This is beneficial as it offers relevant and accurate social-statistical
data. Through qualitative research, information from previous investigations, use of
questionnaires and interviews provides quality information under scrutiny. On the other hand, the
gathered opinions are quantified through statistical tools. Another great impact for mixed
research approach is that Flaws in one research method is masked/ complemented by another’s
the strength. Eventually, the researcher can account and test several hypothesis. In this
framework, the finest approach to evaluate the health care disparities in the United States is the
mixed research method (Creswell, 2009).
Purpose statement: Using mixed research method, the investigation aims at identifying the
social factors attributable to the increased health care disparities. The relationship between the
social determinants and strategic interventions (education-awareness program) will be evaluated.
Research question: What social factors greatly contribute to Health care disparities? What
multidisciplinary approaches are effective to minimize health care disparities?
Hypothesis: Increased public awareness on how to access public programs such as Medicare and
Medicaid will reduce health care disparities
Research plan
Random sample will be selected from a community. The inclusion criteria include individuals
from low income families, multiple racial or are immigrants. Data collection includes semi-
structured interviews with few individuals; whose responses will be used as guide when
compiling questionnaires. All interviews and data analysis will be conducted by two senior
researchers. A thematic index will be developed in order to facilitate data management.
From the themes generated, questionnaire will be devised. The questionnaires will comprise of
64 questions (each with 5 scale options). The questionnaire will be divided into various sections
including demographic details, knowledge/awareness about public health care insurance program
and views about recent health care experiences. The questionnaires will be distributed among
200 individuals from the community. For the purposes of sample size; it will be assumed that the
primary outcome of the quantitative questionnaire survey will estimate the extent of health care
disparities. The extent proportion is estimated to be 50%, 95%CI around 200 questionnaire
responders. The questionnaires will be distributed assuming to attain a 40% response. Data
generated will be analyzed using relevant statistical tools to summarize the findings. Statistical
Package for Social Scientists (SPSS version 17) will be used to analyze descriptive data. The
Chi-square test will be used to evaluate the associations between the social determinants
attributable to health care disparities and public awareness program. Other outcomes generated
by the survey such as the age group proportion will be reported along with their 95% CI
(Johnson, 2008).
References
Creswell, J. (2009). Research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches (3 rd
ed.)Thousand Oaks, CA: sage publications
Johnson, B. (2008). ‘Educational research: A quantitative, qualitative and mixed method
approaches.’
Vargas, A., & Chen, J. (2014) The great recession and health spending among uninsured U.S.
immigrants: implications for the affordable care act implementation. Health services research
49; 6, p1902-1928
