Preterm Birth Initiative

Preterm Birth Initiative

Introduction

Preterm births are infants who are born with a gestation period of 37 weeks or less. The final weeks usually are essential in the growth and development of the fetus in the significant organs systems like the liver, brain, and lungs. Preterm births are a leading cause of mortality for infants and developmental disorders like feeding and breathing. According to Purisch and Gyamfi-Bannerman (2017), children may exhibit cerebral palsy, vision difficulties, and delays in development. Cognitive-behavioral disorders are also common for children born as preterm babies like challenges in social interactions, controlling themselves emotionally, and paying attention. The frequency or rates of preterm births are higher for populations where mothers earn a low income, belong to minority groups, and are younger than 18 years. The research tool that will be used for this project is a close-ended questionnaire. The questionnaires shall be given to nursing practitioners and mothers to find out about the risk factors, today’s prevalence of the preterm births, and find possible solutions to the problem (Sun et al., 2019).

Literature Review

The numbers for preterm births have increased significantly in the last thirty years. In 1990, it stood at 10.6 for every 100 live births, but it rose to 12.7% in 2006. Currently, the natural average statistics show that approximately ten infants for every 100 live births are born prematurely (CDC, 2019). Some states far exceed the national average; for instance, Mississippi has a preterm birth rate of 13.6%. Between 2014 and 2016, the rate increased by 3%, and these rates are higher than other developed economies in the world (Purisch & Gyamfi-Bannerman, 2017). Preterm birth is a high risk for healthcare because a child is not developed fully when they are born. The premature babies demand more care, and their cost of hospitalization is colossal. The estimated average price of a preterm infant is $21,500, whereas a fully developed baby will cost $3,200 (CDC, 2019). The government fully acknowledges that preterm births are an indication of morbidity and mortality, and it is committed to eliminating disparities of health.

Close-Ended Interviews

Chloe Johnson has been researching for over fifteen years in the public health sector. She understands how public health is yearly beset by hurdles of various conditions in the general public. She also has a broad knowledge and experience in health regarding minority groups. These healthcare disparities can be fixed if the state govehttps://studygroom.com/ethical-principles-of-public-health/rnments and the federal government will work on policies and fully engage researchers in the specific areas of interest. Chloe shares that using questionnaires in research is inexpensive. The self-administered paper questionnaires need no surveyors to conduct interviews with the target population. Therefore, massive amounts of information can be collected from many people at low costs and enable the researcher to obtain enough content for analysis and making credible conclusions. It is possible to send thousands of emails to different people at minimal costs and to receive their feedback after a few days or weeks.

Chloe further sheds light on the effectiveness of questionnaires that, when well designed, can cover every topic. There is no danger of creating multiple quizzes, each addressing a subtopic of interest, and all these questions will build on one subject. Also, questionnaires are time-efficient. Face-to-face interviews have a huge limitation when it comes to time. People always have appointments to attend to or duties to handle, and they will give the research only limited time. The interviewer will also be bound to little time waiting for answers from the interviewee. Questionnaires offer respondents time to answer the questions in their convenient time and pace (Kahya, & Oral, 2018). The physical presence of a researcher can also thwart the credibility of answers, especially if the subject matter is contentious or sensitive.

Edith Perez, a medical researcher at the Mayo clinic, approves the use of questionnaires with proper designing and planning. The first efficiency factor Perez lists are the timeliness of inquiries. It is possible to get answers in less than 24 hours. Those looking for information must not wait for another company to research for weeks or months for them to access what they can, in a matter of hours. The scale and reach will also affect the duration it will take to collect information. Thanks to the internet and technology, geography is no longer a barrier. There are several tools the internet provides, which can gather information from the target population without revealing their identity, for example, Google forms. The research can be scaled to the size of a country or a significant region. Tools like Survey Anyplace offer the solution of multiple languages. Perez concludes by saying, a single questionnaire is scalable and is available in many words.

The last interview was with Daniel Cantillon, a gynecology research specialist in the Cleveland clinic who loves questionnaires because they are comparable. Monthly and annual data can be collected for future analysis. From such studies, useful conclusions will be made concerning the trends and the performance of the public health sector, and specifically, preterm births. The results of questionnaires are quantitative, and this fact allows for a stress-free analysis of the outcome. It will be challenging to establish trends in healthcare without using quantitative methods. Numerous built-in tools give easy research time performing analysis. Through tables and charts, outcomes will be interpreted to a broad audience of colleagues, clients, and seniors. There is no need to have additional statistical software since the obtained data is actionable.

Challenges of Using Questionnaires as Data Collection Tool

The three experts, however, warned against banking all confidence in the obtained results of respondents. Whereas most questionnaires can be real and positive, honesty is not guaranteed. There are social desirability bias and an effort to maintain privacy. Secondly, there is the challenge of receiving unanswered questions. For instance, asking patients whether they smoke or use other drugs may not obtain answers from all respondents. The third major challenge the researcher will have to face is a lack of non-verbal communication. Studies have shown that words only count for less than 30% in communication. Feelings, emotions, and sincerity are communicated through gestures and body language, which questionnaires cannot have. Finally, some questions prove challenging to analyze for some people (Kahya & Oral, 2018).

Recommendations for the Interviews

The challenge of getting accurate information is solvable by close targeting of the population. Questions aimed at professional medical staff should be given to the nurse and doctors who handle patients. General questions that any person can control will be given to the general public to respond. There are technical issues that the interviewer may not adequately address in the answers for various questions about preterm births. Using open-ended questions to allow persons with expertise to share their experience. The danger with this approach is that there will be a flood of data that will complicate analysis. It is highly encouraged to use the Likert scale for questions that are not definitive. For instance, feelings and emotions will best utilize a Likert range rated from one to five (Kahya, & Oral, 2018).

The structure and nature of the questions must shun from sensitive issues or private matters, which will force respondents to either lie or leave blanks in the documents. No one ever wants to be ashamed or feel embarrassed about the choices they made or the conditions they experience. Finally, making the questions very simple that anyone can answer is the best way of ensuring everyone responds truthfully, accurately, and conveniently.

Changes on Questionnaires Tool

Survey questions ought to be clear, simple, and relatively brief to garner actionable data. The original intention was to use close-ended questionnaires to limit the flood of data that comes with the open-ended approach. To strike a balance between the two options, there will be semi-close ended questions. In addition to the close-ended queries, there are several ways to shape items to get the projected answers. Addressing the issue of the accuracy of information and blanks on the details, the questionnaire will be customized to have some personalization. Some people are put off when they realize that the questions are not targeting them at an individual level. Accuracy of the collected data can be improved by structuring questions differently for different people. Initially, all people were to receive copies of the same issues. Interaction with the experts proved invaluable by explaining that items must not be similar for every person.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2019). An Online Geographic Data Visualization Tool to Relate Preterm Births to Environmental Factors. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2019/18_0498.htm

Kahya, E., & Oral, N. (2018). Measurement of clinical nurse performance: Developing a tool, including contextual items. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 8(6), 112. Retrieved from http://www.sciedu.ca/journal/index.php/jnep/article/view/12491

Purisch, S. E., & Gyamfi-Bannerman, C. (2017, November). Epidemiology of preterm birth. In Seminars in perinatology (Vol. 41, No. 7, pp. 387-391). WB Saunders. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6690742/

Sun, S., Weinberger, K. R., Spangler, K. R., Eliot, M. N., Braun, J. M., & Wellenius, G. A. (2019). Ambient temperature and preterm birth: a retrospective study of 32 million US singleton births. Environment international, 126, 7-13. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30776752