Survey on Opioid Crisis in Anytown

Summary

A survey is a valuable research instrument allowing for the in-depth examination of different problematic situations, conditions, or topics of interest by querying a specific group of people and analyzing the gathered data. In this regard, surveys help scholars or organizations to raise discussions about disturbing issues, reveal solutions, build effective strategies, and make decisions. In the case of Anytown struggling with opioid misuse and widespread incidents of pneumoconiosis due to work in coal mines, the most appropriate type of survey is an online survey. The rationale for this choice is that online surveys are both simple for a researcher in terms of design and application and comfortable for respondents. As a result, their simplicity allows for questioning a larger population.

Questions

The intended survey will consist of several types of questions, including closed-opened, multiple-choice, and open-closed questions. The first questions will concern the background information of participants to determine their name, age, sex, and employment. Demographic data can help detect the most vulnerable group of people exposed to opioid use and some important differences in answers in terms of sex and age.

1. What is your name?
2. How old are you?
3. What is your sex?
4. Where and how long have you been working (your position)?
5. Do you have children? How many?

The last question aims at determining the potential impact of parents’ opioid use on children. The following unit of questions is related to reasons and circumstances contributing to opioid use or abuse.

1. When did you first begin using opioids? At what age?
2. What reason or circumstances urged you to turn to drugs (chronic or acute pain, illness, including pneumoconiosis)? Was it connected with your work conditions?
3. Have you ever heard about opioid dependence?
4. Did your doctor warn you about this severe problem? – Questions 8 and 9 will help evaluate the population’s awareness of this issue.
5. Did you use opioids during pregnancy? – This question is explained by that the number of newborns experiencing abstinence syndrome because of opioid use during pregnancy has increased over the last years (“What is,” 2021).
6. What narcotic(s) do you use on an everyday basis?
7. Have you ever used heroin and synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl or methadone? What do you know about their side effects? – These questions are stipulated that the death rate for synthetic opioids has increased by 15% from 2018 to 2019, even more than the rate for heroin grown by 6% (“Understanding the epidemic,” 2021).
8. How many times per day or week do you use a drug(s)? In which cases?

The next two questions are addressed to doctors.

1. How often do you prescribe drugs to patients? What are the most frequent causes?
2. Have you ever suggested drugs containing fentanyl for individuals? Are you aware of the potential harm of this substance?

The last question will concern the potential strategies that respondents consider effective and helpful:

1. How do you think which practical interventions or activities are needed to mitigate or resolve the current situation?

Distribution and Validity of the Survey

Since the opioid crisis in Anytown has acquired an alarming scope, the given survey should be distributed through all possible means of communication. Specifically, invitations can be sent to the citizens’ emails, primarily healthcare providers and those who work in coal mines. Additionally, it is relevant to publish the post about the survey on the town’s website, including on social media, and in local newspapers to enhance people’s awareness. The data will be collected using both a paper form and SurveyMonkey, an Internet-based program, the access to which can be performed via personal computers or smartphones. The survey’s validity will be ensured and assessed by asking respondents and experts whether the questions correspond to their primary intention (Tsang et al., 2017). The survey’s reliability will be estimated by repeating the same survey over a particular period of time. The extensive coverage of participants due to online instruments will also give added value to the study.

References

Tsang, S., Royse, C. F., & Terkawi, A. S. (2017). Guidelines for developing, translating, and validating a questionnaire in perioperative and pain medicine. Saudi Journal of Anaesthesia, 11(1), 80–89. Web.

Understanding the epidemic. (2021). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web.

What is the U.S. opioid epidemic?. (2021). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Web.