Polypharmacy Use and Injurious Motor Vehicle Accidents Involving - Research Paper Example

? Poly-Pharmacy Use and Injurious Motor Vehicle Accidents Involving Older Drivers The current study involves qualitativelyassessing the impact of use of poly-pharmacy on elderly people and its contribution to motor vehicle accidents. The study will be guided by the following objectives: assessing the impact of use of poly-pharmacy on elderly people, to examine the relationship between use of poly-pharmacy by older people and motor vehicle accidents, and to evaluate appropriate measures to reduce effects of poly-pharmacy on elderly people. The study will utilize descriptive case study design. Data will be collected by use of the questionnaire and interview. The study will adopt purposive sampling technique in choosing the respondents for the research. Descriptive and inferential analysis methods will be applied in order to measure and determine the relationship that exists among the already collected information. Background of the research Poly-pharmacy is the use of many drugs and is associated with problems that occur when a patient takes more medications than it is usually needed (Hilmer & Gnjidic, 2009). This is a particular concern for elderly people, who make up 13% of the population, but account to about 30% of prescribed drugs. Researches have indicated that such people have higher rates of depression. Despite the proliferation of motor vehicles in the past century, motor vehicle safety has improved. Nevertheless, motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of injuries and deaths. According to the US Census Bureau, 13% of people aged 65 and above accounts for 11% of motor vehicle injuries and 19% of all motor vehicle deaths (Werder & Preskorn, 2003). Studies have also indicated that accidents involving older drivers are associated with lower speeds and absence of alcohol. This means that there are other causes, which among them include physical problems, visual, use of poly-pharmacy, and cognitive (Barbara, 2003). In fact, studies have indicated that biological, social, and medical changes in aging influence driving patterns and roadway safety (Formiga, et al., 2008; Parthasarathi, et al., 2004). In this regard, thus study aims at qualitatively assessing the impact of use of poly-pharmacy on elderly people and its contribution to motor vehicle accidents. Research objectives To assess the impact of use of poly-pharmacy on elderly people To examine the relationship between use of poly-pharmacy by older people and motor vehicle accidents To evaluate appropriate measures to reduce effects of poly-pharmacy on elderly people Research questions What are impacts of use of poly-pharmacy on elderly people? What is the relationship between use of poly-pharmacy and motor vehicle accidents? What are the appropriate measures to reduce effects of poly-pharmacy on elderly people? Research hypothesis The use of poly-pharmacy by elderly contributes to motor vehicle accidents The use of poly-pharmacy by elderly does not contribute to motor vehicle accidents Study design This research considered a descriptive case study design appropriate for the study of the current phenomena. In this regard, the study will focus on Florida State, as opposed to the entire country. This design is preferred because of proximity of the case and faster access to information (Bryman, & Bell, 2003). More prominently, it allows an in-depth scrutiny of the phenomena at hand. The study utilizes this design in ascertaining poly-pharmacy use and motor vehicle accidents involving older drivers. To note, it is a descriptive research due to the aim of the research to qualitatively assessing the impact of use of poly-pharmacy on elderly people and its contribution to motor vehicle accidents without intervening. In descriptive research, the researcher needs only to record the data as they occur (Creswell, 2003). The subject and data taken will be highly regarded that no any form of influence on part of the researcher will be made (Stake, 1994). Moreover, the study is also classified as a case study as it focuses on a single entity only (Florida state). Bearing in mind further that this approach places a high regard on the participant’s experiences and opinion, it seems that this method would also allow for a more thorough examination of the human acuity of the impact of use of poly-pharmacy on elderly people and its connection with motor vehicle accidents. Sampling method Sampling is defined as the procedure whereby a participant or a respondent is chosen from among a population bearing in mind certain peculiarities that are typical to them (Neuman, 2002). This research will adopt purposive sampling technique in choosing the respondents for the research, since there are certain characteristics that must be present for information to be valid. Purposive sampling is a sub-type of non-probability sampling and is a characteristic of a method where the prospective members of a sample group possess certain traits. The sampling unit will be 20 older people who use poly-pharmacy and drive, 20 older people who do not use poly-pharmacy, but drive, and 10 physicians. The latter makes them either the focus of the study or makes them the best source of information for the research (Gregory, 2003). Data collection method First and foremost, data will be collected by use of the questionnaire and interview and will be the main data collection methods. Respondents will be selected to represent older people with poly-pharmacy and driving experiences in Florida State. Physicians will also be included in the study. They will help in asserting the effects of poly-pharmacy on older people. Secondary data will involve the collection of already processed information mainly from libraries, journals, and internet. All these methods are perceived to be appropriate because according to Bryman (2001), they help gather empirical evidence in order to gain new insights about the relationship between poly-pharmacy and road accidents. The study will be testing the following variables: It is apparent that road accidents are as a result of many causes. This study will focus on the above variables and use them as a guide to develop questions for the questionnaire and interview guide. Poly-pharmacy use is a variable that will be used to develop questions that will seek to establish the effects they have on older people. The relationship between older people who use poly-pharmacy and prevalence of road accidents will be sought from people who use poly-pharmacy. Correlation of those who use poly-pharmacy with those who do not use will be used to evaluate the effects of poly-pharmacy on older people. It is apparent that apart from poly-pharmacy, physical problems have also been found to contribute to road accidents. For example, older people with injuries or visual problems may have high likelihood of causing road accidents than those without. In this regard, questions will be developed to assess its contribution to road accidents. Apart from having physical problems, some older people could have social problems such as stress emanating from their social life. In this regard, the researcher will find it vital to construct questions that will seek to gather information on how frequently such problems contribute to road accidents. Questionnaire Questionnaire will be one of the primary methods of data collection in this study. It will have two parts: the first part will be composed of closed questions, which will be used to gather demographic and other statistical information (Neuman, 2002). The second part will be comprised of open questions, which will seek to establish opinion from respondents in addition to gathering more qualitative, data. The questionnaire will be administered by the researcher through direct interaction with the respondents. Interviews This tool will be used to collect data from old drivers who use poly-pharmacy. The researcher will ask direct questions to the interviewee as the recording of responses will be done simultaneously. This tool will highly help the research in gathering more information because it allows researchers to follow up on interesting responses that were not expected (Neuman, 2002). There will be predetermined questions that could be modified in accordance to the perception of what will seem to be most appropriate. Data analysis After data collection, editing, coding of similar themes, and classifying and tabulating will be done. In this regard, the hermeneutic-phenomenological analysis of data will be involved in interpreting data, in various stages. The information given by respondents will be highly articulated on by carrying out an in-depth analysis of data. Data editing will involve examining collected data to detect errors for correction to ensure accuracy and consistency. Data coding will involve assigning symbols to answers in order to classify responses. After a tally of each individual variable, data will be recorded on a tally sheet in order to measure completeness, occurrence, and clarity. This is paramount because raw data collect from the field is not well organized for interpretation. Classification of data will help in reducing data into homogeneous groups (Creswell, 2002). Descriptive and inferential analysis methods will be applied in order to measure and determine the relationship that exists among the already collected information. Descriptive analysis such as percentages, mean and mode will be used in aid to understand and interpret variables. In this regard, the package (SPSS) 11.0 is considered to be efficient, reliable, and would be able to sort and provide correlations between variables. Ethical issues The study relates to personal and confidential information including participant’s medical information and driving experiences. In this regard, the researcher is required to follow stringent ethical protocol, which protects the rights of participants. They need to be guaranteed of their anonymity throughout the study (Gregory, 2003). Participants will also be guaranteed of their right to withdraw from the study anytime they wish to, and that such an action will not lead to their reprimand. These are some of the issues researchers need to reflect on in order to attain honest and valid response from participants. References: Barbara, J. (2003). Assessment and counseling of older drivers: A guide for primary care physicians. Geriatrics, 58, 12: 16-24. Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2003). Business Research Methods. New York: Oxford University Press. Bryman, A. (2001). Social research methods. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Creswell, J. W. (2002). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Merrill Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Formiga, F., et al. (2008). Factors associated with hip fracture-related falls among patients with a history of recurrent falling. Bone, 43: 941-944. Gregory, I. (2003). Ethics in research. London: Continuum International Publishing Group,. Hilmer, S. & Gnjidic, D. (2009). The Effects of Polypharmacy in Older Adults. Clinical pharmacology & Therapeutics, 85, 1: 86-88. Neuman, W. L. (2002). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 5th ed. New Jersey, Allyn & Bacon. Parthasarathi, G., et al. (2004). A text book of clinical pharmacy practice: essential concepts and skills. Hyderabad; [Great Britain]: Orient Longman Ltd. Werder, S. & Preskorn, S. (2003). Managing polypharmacy: Walking the fine line. Current Psychiatry, 2, 2: 24-36. Read More