Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Chaney et al - Asthma Spacer Device
to Improve Compliance in Children
- A Pilot Study
- Research Method
- A field experiment, conducted
in the participants' home
settings in Australia
- More ecologically valid as the
participants are in their own
enviornment, where they would usually
take their asthma medication; at home
- There are more extraneous variables as
the participants are in their own home
and not in a controlled environment
- Repeated Measures Design
- This allows the researchers to show a
clear comparison and analysis
between the compliance of children
with the two asthma devices
- Less participants needed
than in independent
measures design
- Excludes individual
differences
- More chances of order effects as the
children are using both inhalers
- Demand Characteristics as the
participants use both inhalers
(see both conditions)
- Sample
- 32 Children
- 22 Male, 10 Female
- Gender Bias - reducing the population validity
- Age Range: 1.5
Years to 6 Years
- Mean age 3.2
- Average duration of
asthma 2.2 Years
- The children's
parents provided
informed consent
and also
participated in the
study through
completing
questionnaires and
taking part in a
phone interview.
- Children were too young to give their own consent.
The fact that the parents gave consent makes Chaney's
study ethically sound, as there is a lack of deception,
and the study is also confidential
- Random Sampling
- Random
sample of
asthmatic
children who
had been
prescribed
drugs delivered
by PMDI and
Spacer
(pressurised
metered dose
inhaler)
- Recruited from Clinics across
a large geographical area
- Increases the population
validity
- Process of selection is unbias and
fair, as everyone has an equal
chance of being chosen
- Has a chance of producing
a bias sample, as it is
completely random
- Experimental Design
- Independent variables
- Whether the child used a
standard/small volume spacer device
- The Breath-a-Tech
- Whether the child used a Funhaler
- Dependent Variable
- The amount of adherence to the
prescribed medical regime
- Quantative Findings
- Given in numerical form such as
the numbers of asthmatic children
and their parents who
administered medication on
randomly checked days
- Easy to Directly and objectively
compare the use of each device
- Lack of Depth and detail
about the compliance of
children with the medication
- Procedure Details
- The children's parents gave informed consent and
completed a structured close question questionnaire, with
an interviewer about the child's current asthma device
- The participants were asked to use a funhaler instead of
their normal PDMI space inhaler, without further
instructions, except that parental guidance was required
- The Funhaler incorporated the standard PDMI inhaler
and spacer, along with an additional attachment which
included incentive toys, such as a spinning disc and
whistle. These were designed to distract the children
from the drug delivery event and to encourage and
reward deep breathing patterns (required for effective
delivery of medication
- This was a form of operant conditioning - Self
reinforcement as the use of device rewarded the user,
requiring no external reinforcement/encouragement
from doctor or parent.
- After this time, parents completed a matched item
questionnaire on the funhaler. The researchers also conducted a
random check via telephone checking on participants to find out
whether they had attempted to educate their child the day
before