According to Healthy People 2010, family planning is supposed to give individuals and couples the ability to give birth to the manageable number of children (Cartwright, 2009). It ensures that children are spaced accordingly. Family planning is done through the use of contraceptives as well as treatments which enable infertile persons to get children. This paper explores research study done on family planning as one of the focus areas of Healthy people 2010. A research study on people living in African- American neighborhoods has been chosen.
The study question concentrated on the impact of integrating family planning therapies with normal antenatal care. This was found to be a relevant topic. According to Scutchfield and Keck (2003), several mothers in these regions end up getting unplanned pregnancies even after visiting antenatal clinics. It was ultimately important to work on any possibilities of interventions meant to help them. It is also important to note that family planning is a dependable way of improving lifestyles of many citizens (Thomas, 2003).
In the quest to find out the state of the African-American population, this study integrated an aspect of reporting their willingness to plan their families since it ensured that goals of such investigative health studies were exhaustively achieved. It is true that family health issues have to be tackled with deep investigations (Stahl, 2004).
A qualitative research question was used in the study. This was developed using different specific research questions. The broad concern of family planning practices would not be totally studied without the use of specific queries. Hence, some of the major issues of concern when investigating family planning and other health issues include the standard of services offered, services that are available in health care centers and awareness of all official policies on family planning (McKenzie, Pinger & Kotecki, 2012). The latter formed the basis of the study.
A scholarly research design was sufficient for this kind of research study. It gave the researchers a foundation to evaluate all the findings on family planning (Duncan, Brooks-Gunn & Aber, 1997). Given that a good choice of sites for research determines the format of a study, this design enabled the audience to report their true attitude towards family planning. Chatburn (2011) notes that women’s ability to plan their families depends on their overall well being. It was necessary to add an element of reviewing women’s health since it has a direct impact on pregnancies. Outcome of pregnancies also depends on health seeking behavior of women (Ivanov & Blue, 2007). This needed to be captured in the research. Since the author of the study complied with the guidelines on Healthy People 2010, it demonstrated compliance towards universal policies on health.
Qualitative research studies are more reliable if they test a set of possible hypotheses (Bowling & Ebrahim, 2005). A possible hypothesis for this study would be that most citizens are unable to manage their health standards because they do not plan their families. This study would be more informative if a hypothesis was made and tested thereafter. The findings that most African-Americans do not use family planning appropriately are quite debatable. The data leading to this conclusion contradicts other studies. For instance, Chatburn (2011) indicates that this segment of the population uses over- the- counter clinical services. He adds that they acquire condoms and other contraceptives for themselves (Chatburn, 2011). Apparently, this enables them to exercise control over their reproductive health.
In summing up, this study was done through a general sampling of areas dominated by black-American neighborhoods. Use of cohort studies was necessary in ensuring a broad sense of reviewing the research study. An important methodical issue was the avoidance of specific case studies. This might have affected the quality of conclusions made. It is normally essential to incorporate pieces of established literature in doing health research studies (Bowling & Ebrahim, 2005). This study would be more effective if it were compounded with reports on family planning across the whole nation.
References
Bowling, A. & Ebrahim, S. (2005). Handbook of health research methods: Investigation, measurement and analysis. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Cartwright, A. (2009). Parents and family planning services. Piscataway, N.J: AldineTransaction.
Chatburn, R. L. (2011). Handbook for health care research. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Duncan, G. J., Brooks-Gunn, J. & Aber, J. L. (1997). Neighborhood poverty. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Ivanov, L. L., & Blue, C. L. (2007). Public health nursing: Leadership, policy, & practice. Australia: Delmar Cengage Delmar.
McKenzie, J. F., Pinger, R. R. & Kotecki, J. E. (2012). An introduction to community health. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Scutchfield, F. D., & Keck, C. W. (2003). Principles of public health practice. Clifton Park: Thomson/Delmar Learning.
Stahl, M. J. (2004). Encyclopedia of health care management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Thomas, R. K. (2003). Health services planning. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.