Public Health Research Study Design Example: Cannabis use among middle and high school students in California: Cross-sectional study
Research Study Design Example Abstract
This Research Study Design Example seeks to estimate the prevalence of cannabis use in middle and high school students in California in 2020. Assess the impact of cannabis use on the academic performance of middle and high school students in California. The data will be collected using questionnaires for both the use of cannabis and its effects on children and teenagers. The researcher selected a cross-sectional research study design example. This is because the interest was to capture the use of cannabis among children in California in 2020.
The data would be gathered based on the participants’ age, gender, race, academic level, academic performance, and physical health. The researcher chose a cross-sectional research study design example because it is an observational type of study design. It enabled the researcher to assess the exposure to cannabis use among middle and high school students and the outcomes. This research study design example will focus on students in middle and high school in California.
This implies both male and female students in grades 6 through 12. This means that the participants will be aged 11 to 17 years. The prevalence of cannabis among middle and high school students will be calculated by summing up the number of participants who confess to using cannabis divided by the total number of participants and multiplying by the total number of middle and high school students in California.
Research Study Design Example: Background & Objectives
More than two million students in America, in grades 6 through 12, “vape” cannabis Trivers et al., 2018. 1.7 million high school students and 400,000 middle school students use e-cigarette devices to inhale vaporized tetrahydrocannabinol wax. In a 5217 sample of middle and high school students, 30 percent have vaped marijuana using an e-cigarette. He habit is more prevalent among boys since 10.6 percent of them administer cannabis by using e-cigarettes, as compared to 8 percent who were girls.
It was also clear that the abuse of cannabis has affected the minority communities more since more than 20 percent of the children send adolescent cannabis users were African-American and Latino. The number of young cannabis users, which had been declining for a long time, started rising after the legalization of marijuana (Wang et al., 2019).
Cannabis use is known to have short and long-term physical, psychological effects among young users. High-frequency use is known to lead to a severe impact on psychosocial and other health problems. The use of cannabis among children and adults has significant health effects on children and adolescence. It adversely affects their memory and learning, which impairs their learning abilities.
Cannabis is known to severely impair the frontal cortex, affecting their vigilance, ability to think complex thoughts, and memory. There has been evidence of a drop in the Intelligence Quotient has shown neuropsychological effects. Acute intoxication has been linked to attention deficit. When started early, long-term regular abuse may lead to severe verbal learning, memory, and user attention. Cannabis has also been linked to truancy on students who use it regularly.
Research Study Design Example Objectives
This Research Study Design Example aims to:
- Estimate the prevalence of cannabis us in middle and high school students in area California in 2020.
- Assess the impact of cannabis use on the academic performance of middle and high school students in Califonia.
Research Study Design Example: Methods
The researcher selected a cross-sectional research study design example. This is because the interest was to capture the use of cannabis among children in California in 2020. The data would be gathered based on the participants’ age, gender, race, academic level, academic performance, and physical health. The researcher chose a cross-sectional study design because it is an observational type of study design. It enabled the researcher to assess the exposure to cannabis use among middle and high school students and the outcomes.
The case-control research study design example was not used because it requires a case where the researcher selects the participants based on outcome status. A cohort study was not applied because it would require the researcher to select the participants based on their exposure status (World Health Organization, 2020). The researcher chose the cross-sectional design also because they were dealing with population-based surveys. The research study design example is also relatively cheap as compared to its alternatives.
Research Study Design Example: Cannabis Use among Middle and High School Students
- All middle and high school students in California
- Sample of middle and high school students in California
- Uses Cannabis
- Dose not use Cannabis
- Displays an outcome
- Does not displays an outcome
- Displays an outcome
- Does not displays an outcome
Research Study Design Example: Study Participants
This Research Study Design Example will focus on students in middle and high school in California. This implies both male and female students in grades 6 through 12. This means that the participants will be aged 11 to 17 years. The participants will be selected randomly from every class. This selection will be made randomly regardless of whether the researcher saw the prospective participant with an e-cigarette.
The random selection of participants will be made in the classroom, but the survey will be administered anonymously. In addition to some demographic details, the participants will be required to fill out whether or not they use cannabis, how they administer it, who frequently do the teenagers do it, the effect they have noticed, and the academic performance before and after they started using cannabis. The participants will fill out the information about changes in their social life.
Research Study Design Example: Data collection
The use of cannabis among students aged 11 to 17 years in California will be measured using the information provided by the study participants on whether they use cannabis. The research will also, when teenagers start using cannabis, how frequently they use the drug, and how much cannabis they smoke in a day, in ounces, why they started using cannabis, do they do any other drug in addition to cannabis. They do they intend to stop anytime in the future. All these will be summed up to their level of cannabis life.
The outcome of marijuana use among middle and high school students will be measured by the change in school participants since they started using cannabis. They will fill out whether their academic performance has changed since they started using cannabis and how their performance co-curricular activities; for example, have they picked or dropped a sport.
They will also be asked to tell how their social life has been affected, for example, have they gain dot lost a friend. They will be asked to give information on how their relationships with friends and family have been affected. In measuring the outcome of cannabis use, the participants will be asked about their opinion on the drug’s impact. For example, do they feel like they forgetful nowadays?
The following factors will be considered to measure the cofounder variable in this Research Study Design Example, variables that affect both the exposure and the outcome and are neither. How old is the participant, their gender, health condition, history of drug use in the family, how they get the cannabis, and mental health condition? They can also provide details on how they administer the drug. The changed in the participants’ mental health condition will be factored in.
Research Design Sample: Possible Sources of Errors
Selection bias may be introduced during the administration of the Research Study Design Example. The research may focus too much on selecting the students they saw in possession of an e-cigarette. Also, focusing on students in grades 6 through 12 aims to focus on cannabis use among teenagers. However, this may not be the case since some students skip or repeat a class.
Selection bias may also occur because most students may be scared of admitting to using cannabis with the fear of being punished. The answers to questions on their opinion on their effects so far after using cannabis are expected to be highly subjective and, therefore, biased. Measurement bias is also expected due to the amount of cannabis used by the patient due to the varying administration methods, such as the ounces of smoking cannabis and the cartridges while dealing with an e-cigarette.
Research Study Design Example: Time frame
This Research Study Design Example will be requiring the participants to fill out the survey only once. It may take up to one week to administer the survey among numerous schools in California. The whole study will take up to one month to complete.
Research Study Design Sample: Ethical consideration
While carrying out this study, I will consider volunteer students to fill out a survey anonymously. No participant will be forced to take part in this study. I will guarantee the participants total anonymity; therefore, they should feel free to share confidential information. No participant will be compelled to prove any of the information provided. The information they provide will be used in the study only after they consent to it. In addition to that, the participants will be informed that the information they provide will be used for this research and no other purpose.
Research Design Example Part III: Proposed findings and their possible impact
The measure of disease frequency in this study is the prevalence, and the association’s measure will be the risk ratio. The prevalence of cannabis among middle and high school students will be calculated by summing up the number of participants who confess to using cannabis divided by the total number of participants and multiplying by the total number of middle and high school students, California.
The outcome will be measured in net improvement in the students’ lives after they started using cannabis. This will be obtained by summing up the benefits and subtracting the detriment. Each of the exposure items and outcome items will be assigned a weight of one (Morean et al., 2015).
Finding the prevalence of more than 20 percent will mean the use of cannabis among teenagers and children in California are high. This means that the intellectual capabilities of future generations are at risk. It will inform parents and teachers to educate the youth about the effects of drug use early in life. With the help of this finding, lawmakers can help ban e-cigarette devices among persons below 21 years (Kassebaum et al., 2020).
