Introduction
The research methodology determines the direction the study intends to develop, how the data are collected, and the type of research conducted. It also specifies the quality and reliability of the data gathered. The methodology can also identify the analytical tools that the researcher will use to analyze the evidence. The outcome of a research study is defined by its quality, which represents a specific combination of properties of the research, potentially or objectively capable of satisfying its requirements. Thus, it is essential to provide a research design and methodological plan for the causes and trends of maternal mortality.
The Population and Location
The maternal mortality rate is one of the main criteria of socioeconomic development of society, quality, and level of organization of obstetric institutions. In addition, the effectiveness of introducing scientific achievements into health care practice. Maternal mortality is the most significant indicator of the health of female reproductive age, but its level is still high (Davis et al., 2019). Every day about 800 women worldwide die of complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. In 2017, 281,000 women lost their lives during and after pregnancy and childbirth, with most of the deaths occurring in developing countries, especially since most of them were preventable (Creanga, 2018). The four leading causes are bleeding, primarily postpartum hemorrhage, infections (sepsis), hypertensive disorders (usually eclampsia), and obstructed labor with complications after abortion. Indirect maternal mortality is related to illnesses that complicate or worsen pregnancy, such as malaria, anemia, HIV/AIDS, and cardiovascular disease (Collier & Molina, 2019). Consequently, the issue applies to all women who suffer from difficulties related to pregnancy or childbirth.
The research will focus on female populations living in the United States. This is explained by the fact that the maternal mortality rate in the U.S., which was already the fastest in the industrialized world, rose in 2020. The rate was 22.7 deaths per 100,000 live births, much higher than in similar countries such as Canada, 7.4 during the review period (Douthard et al., 2021). Therefore, the study will describe the U.S. female population that has been at risk and affected during pregnancy and childbirth, which has led to maternal mortality.
The Study Sample and Sample Size
In order to answer the question about maternal mortality rates in the United States, it is essential to analyze the data available through state agencies. Accordingly, the research will use reports provided by 13 state MMRCs through the Maternal Mortality Review Information Program (MMRIA). This program was chosen because it contains a complete record of the woman carrying the baby and the doctors accompanying the pregnancy (Hernandez & Kim, 2021). This way will gather data on the mother’s condition and invite the physician who provided her medical treatment for an interview.
To ensure that the data is sufficient, the study will analyze reports and interviews of physicians who comment on maternal deaths from 2008 to 2017. The selected states to explore maternal deaths are Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Hence, a study of maternal mortality over ten years in 13 states will establish the common and different reasons for the problem. At the same time, this comprehensive research sample will help develop general trends and methods of dealing with the issue. It is essential to emphasize that the study design does not extend to the entire United States because of funding and resource limits for the study.
It is essential to highlight that the research will use the snowball method. First, the reports will be systematically examined; the first portion of respondents will be randomly selected (Nayak & Singh, 2021). Once certain relationships between physician interviews and cases of maternal mortality of women have been established, subsequent inclusion of deaths by a particular attribute in the sample will ensue. This method of sampling is appropriate in order to develop specific patterns. For example, the highest mortality rate among black women and focus more on that, or the mortality of young females during pregnancy, focuses on the group of women under 25 years of age. Accordingly, the initial phase of the study will analyze reports from 13 states and interview physicians about women independent of age and race. However, if specific patterns are identified, further attention will be devoted to a narrower sample, which will be incorporated according to the snowball method.
The Study Timeline
It should be mentioned that the timeframe for preparation for the research will be 4 months after receiving funding. In the first two months, the plan is to find and equip a place for data collection and analysis with technology and to hire researchers. The following two months are needed to obtain maternal mortality data from 14 states and pre-screen medical files. Consequently, workers will be required to be technically and logistically prepared to analyze the evidence before the research begins.
The Research Type and Material Support
The study will use a cross-sectional type; this kind of observational research focuses on analyzing data of different variables in a specific sample population collected over a certain period. Thus, the study’s goal is to analyze the variables and draw conclusions about the factors that influenced them (Mohajan, 2017). For this reason, the data collected in the research study are similar on all variables except the one the analysis attempts to establish. It should be emphasized that Arizona will be the primary location for the study. Accordingly, researchers who are involved in the study will research maternal mortality reports and conduct interviews with physicians throughout the year. However, the proposed research requires funding to ensure that costs are covered. The expenses include paying the workers’ salaries, renting space, and renting or buying equipment to analyze the data. At the same time, the costs associated with conducting the interviews and ensuring that physicians from other cities and states arrive and live there should be provided. Hence, the approximate budget for the suggested maternal mortality research study should be $200,000, with the possibility of additional funding.
The Ethical Issues
The medical cases that the research will analyze to establish the causes and trends of maternal mortality will be coded. Accordingly, the woman’s real name and surname will not be publicly disclosed. The study also guarantees the anonymity and confidentiality of the physicians who will participate in the interviews. Before the research is conducted, employees and interviewees will sign a non-disclosure agreement. At the same time, additional financial payments will be provided to encourage doctors to explain the reasons for their actions that may have led to or prevented maternal mortality.
The Methods of Data Collection
To obtain medical records and analyze maternal mortality, the proposed study will use data provided by 13 state MMRCs through the Maternal Mortality Review Information Program. At the same time, to ascertain the details of a woman’s disease progression or cause of death, interviews should be conducted with the physicians who observed the females in each case. Therefore, it will be possible to interpret and explain the data indicated as the cause of maternal mortality in the medical records. Regression analysis will be applied to summarize the results of the study reports and interviews (Oyedele, 2021). This is because the objective of such an analysis is to determine the degree of determinacy of the variation in the criterion variable by the predictors. Accordingly, it will be possible to understand the relationship between the dependent and independent variables and predict the unknown values of the dependent variable (Pandey & Pandey, 2021). Thus, the study’s findings will establish potential trends in maternal mortality and enable them to be reduced.
The Reliability and Validity of the Research
The reliability of the study is due to first reviewing medical files and establishing preliminary conclusions about the causes of maternal mortality and then conducting interviews with physicians. This confirms or refutes the initial findings and shows specific trends in maternal mortality from a medical perspective. A measure such as the validity of the research design determines its overall utility and does not reinforce the validity of the results (FitzPatrick, 2019). The high validity of this research is characterized by the right research design. That is, a research of physicians’ reports and explanations enables correct identification, measurement, and interpretation of the objects under investigation. The generalized character of this research is due to the fact that relevant and irrelevant maternal mortality findings will be determined using the selected methods (FitzPatrick, 2019). Consequently, the analysis will produce a judgment about reliable and relevant factors and trends in maternal mortality.
Conclusion
Hence, this analysis presents the research design and methodological plan for examining the causes and trends of maternal mortality. The study will be based on maternal mortality reports from 13 states and interviews conducted with physicians. This will ensure the validity and reliability of the data obtained and use regression analysis to identify common and distinct factors influencing women’s deaths. Thus, it will highlight relevant trends in maternal mortality in the United States.
References
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