Stroke: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative

¶ … Stroke: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Methods by Phillipa Clarke

The author, Phillipa Clarke, uses a mixed methods approach to her study on the effects of stroke in later life and the subsequent post event effects on the overall well being of the patient. She uses both a qualitative and qualitative method to research this phenomena in the hopes of providing a much more well-rounded overview of the effects, both by the numbers and the individual subjective effects on the those under study. While, as the author even admits, this particular mixed method of using both qualitative and qualitative results is still controversial as to effective conclusion, she nonetheless proceeds with an exhaustive study that reaches

She first proceeds with the quantitative section of her study, with good reason. She will use the quantitative data results to guide the creation of the second part, the qualitative section. For the quantitative results she relies upon a survey that has already been preformed in this area of study. The Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA) was composed of two parts, the initial survey (CSHA-1) was conducted with 9008 seniors (65+) in 1991 and an overall assessment of their condition was gathered. The second part (CSHA-2) was the follow-up that was conducted four years later, of which only 5,395 were able to participate due to various reason (death, severe cognitive impairment, or had moved and were not available, etc.) It is the second phase of this study that Clarke gathers her quantitative data.

Out of the 5,395, 6.3% or 339 reported suffering a stroke and subsequent effects out of which 282 (83.2%) had complete data on at least one of the Ryff measures of well being that Clarke had used for analysis. Her findings were that the less independence with ADL (Activities of Daily Living) a more dependence on other for assistance created a much lower sense of well being post-stroke. Although the findings also indicated that those with larger social support networks, although dependent, showed greater improvements in overall well being. It was also found that higher levels of education were associated with a greater sense of well being across the dimensions.

Using the prior quantitative information as a guideline, Clarke proceeds to the qualitative section of her research with the attempt to shed more light on aspects of the stroke experienced wither not researched in the prior study or that were left with ambiguous explanation. While admitting that it would have been ideal to use the participants from the original CSHA, it was not possible. So she found a group of eight stroke survivors who were culled from a group of 250,000 individual patients from the Sunnybrook, and Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. Of these eight, five had more sever impairments due to hemiparesis or hemiplegia, the remaining three were higher functioning, this gave the study a broader base to compare. The subjects were also recruited with regard to the abundance or lack of social support as well as their level of education, as these were contributing factors that the CSHA had discovered. All admitted that their life had changed after the stroke and that the above factors were certainly relevant to their well being, they also indicated that the adaptive strategies provided by rehabilitation therapy or their own efforts were also a major factor in the sense of self-efficacy.