Qualitative research designs are determined by the research topic being used. The choice of design determines how well the research questions will be answered. The design used in this research was case study designs. The design included the use of semi-structured questionnaires to investigate the use of preventive healthcare practices by postmenopausal overweight women from different economic status in Canada. The use of a case study design was the most appropriate in this research since the research was seeking to understand the difference in the different socio-economic groups which made it necessary to use individual responses to the formulated questionnaires (Audet, 2017).
Ethical issues involved in the study include the use of direct patient responses. The autonomy of the research subjects is crucial in every research is crucial to avoid conflicting the requirements of human research. The researchers observed this ethical consideration by ensuring that the identity of the subjects used was not a requirement in the questionnaires provided. The classification of people into either needy or wealthy is also unethical. The researchers dealt with this aspect of research by obtaining the financial status of the research subjects without directly giving the implication of the use of this data to determine the accessibility to preventive health care (Ellis-Barton, 2016).
The results obtained through qualitative research showed a class-based difference in regard to preventive health practices use and long-term health. The use of quantitative research would have led to more specific findings based on specific research questions. The individual aspects of health affected and the extent of the effects of socio-economic factors on specific health parameters would have been captured (Wright, 2016).
References
Audet, D. B. (2017). Lifestyle Inequalities: Explaining Socioeconomic Differences in Preventive Practices of Clinically Overweight Women After Menopause. NCBI, 27(10), 1541-1552.
Ellis-Barton, C. (2016). Ethical considerations in research participation virality. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 11(3), 281-285.
Wright, S. B. (2016). Research design considerations. Journal of graduate medical education, 8(1), 97-98.
