RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Ⅲ.Research design

The proposed research will be consisted of three phases. The first phase is about to inspect the secondary data in order to cover the useful information we are seeking for. Given the basic information we get from the first stage, the second phase will use qualitative researches as a tool to assist us in acquiring deeper insight into the motivations and attitudes regarding smoking behaviour of smokers. Through phase two, we may be able to discover some unexpected motivations and attitudes of smokers. Based on the in-depth information we obtain in the second phase, we will be capable of forming questionnaires of quantitative research reasonably. The questionnaire would be used during the third phase to fulfil the overall objective of the research.

3.1 Desk research

3.1.1 Purpose

The secondary data will be gathered with the purpose to draw a general picture of characteristics of smokers in the last two years (2007, 2008).The data will help in providing a constructive indication that enables us to inform the next stages. The list of main directions of the desk research to where we are heading to explore are shown below:

• How many people are smoking?
• What is the proportion of smokers in terms of gender and age?
• Which areas of occupations are the adult smokers in? How much salary do they make per year?  
• How many cigarettes do smokers have per day?
• When would smokers smoke their first cigarettes every day?

• Which are the age levels that smokers tend to smoke more?

• How old are they when smokers started smoking?
• Where do smokers usually smoke, indoors or outdoors?

• How many smokers intend to give up smoking, and how many smokers tried to give up (but failed)?

• How do smokers view on quitting smoking?

• What are the reasons for smokers to quit smoking and re-smoke?

• What are the sources of advice and help that smokers usually turn to or get?

• How smokers behave when they are with non-smokers and children?

3.1.2 Procedure

The source of external data would be mainly targeted the data provided by National Statistics Opinion Survey .All the data of targeted reports were collected for the usage of health and social care. Therefore, the data provided by the reports are considerably relevant to our objective of research. In addition, the targeted reports are all released before 2008,most of them are release in 2009,hopefully would provide us  more current data to assist us in understanding the case better.

List of useful points and information of targeted reports related to our research:

• Welsh Health Survey, 2008.

   According to the report of Welsh Health Survey,

 

   a. We could obtain the proportion of current smokers, ex-smokers and non-smokers of adult (classified by age and sex):

   b. We could obtain the locations where people usually smoked:

   c. We could obtain the proportion of smokers who would like to give up   smoking and the one of smokers who had tried to give up in the last year. We could obtain the main reason for smokers to quit also.

  d. We could obtain the proportion of non-smokers who were bothered by   second-hand indoors and outdoors.

•  

            According to the report,

1. We could obtain the proportion of smoking status by sex and socio-economic classification. The socio-economic classification includes managerial and professional occupations; intermediate occupations; routine and manual occupations.
2. We could obtain the number of cigarettes smokers smoked daily.
3. We could obtain the information about when smokers smoked their first cigarette every day.
4. We could obtain the proportion of different views on quitting smoking as well as the reasons of smokers to quit.  
5. We could obtain the proportion of different sources of advice and help on smoking smokers got and used.
6. We could obtain the proportion of smokers who tried to give up smoking and the main reasons for them to smoke again.
7. We could obtain the behavior of smokers when they were with non-smokers and children.

• 
  

             According to the report:

1. We could obtain information about the proportion of smoking among adults and children;
2. We could obtain information about age that smokers started to smoke.

•  

             According to the report,

1. We could obtain the proportion of pupils who regularly smoked.
2. We could obtain information about influences of family attitudes and behaviour towards smoking on young people’s smoking attitudes and behaviour.
3. We could obtain the proportion of different levels of dependence on smoking of pupils.
4. We could obtain information about beliefs and attitudes to smoking among young people.
5. We could obtain the sources of helpful information that young smokers got.

It is noted that with the exception of the report of Welsh Health survey, all the data of the surveys were not covered in Wales. Therefore the data provided by the reports would not entirely indicate the local situation in Wales. However, they are still able to offer us a likely picture for the reason that we believe the situations in Wales and in England are similar, or not that different. The above data of reports have already evaluated by us to ensure that they met the standard: reliability, validity, currency.

When it comes to internal data, we would require to access to the database of Stop Smoking Wales, which would provide information we need of smokers that were helped to quit smoking by your organisation in the past two years. The data will be arranged and analysed to generate a report that based on the directions listed above.

3.2 Primary data

3.2.1 Qualitative researches

With all the constructive analysis we derive from the first phase, it would be easier to understand and summary common behaviour and attitudes towards smoking of smokers in general. The second phase primarily explores the motivations and attitudes to smoking-related issue. Different types of qualitative research would be adopted (if it is necessary, they would be intermixed used) with the purpose of interlinking and fulfilling the different sub-objectives of the research. Further details of each would be presented below

3.2.1.1 Group interview

1. Purpose: a. to explore the reasons, attitudes and motivations to      smoking-related behaviour and littering behaviour;

  b. to explore the reasons that smokers consider     help/information/advice useful or unuseful;

c. to explore the ideas of smokers regarding how to change the smoking-related littering behaviour.

 The group interview research will probe the following:

• Motivations for smokers to smoke at the first place (positive perception of smoking, family influences, friend influences etc.);
• Motivations for smokers to quit (financial reason, health reason, bad impact on children or non-smokers etc.);
• Reasons for smokers to re-smoke;
• The sources of help/advice/information on smoking, to what extend smokers consider it as useful and reasons to their opinions.
• The way smokers dispose smoking-related litter and their attitudes towards throwing the litter any where.
• Recommendations to improve smokers’ behaviour regarding smoking-related litter.

2. Population and sampling:

The target population of group interviews will be people aged 11—45, living in Wales. School registers, Postcode Address File are chosen as sample frame. To those students under 18, school registers would be useful. 80 students would be selected according to the list provided by school census based on the academic year of 2007, 2008 and 2009. To make the research more easily conducted, the selected students would be from two schools (middle school and high school, 40 of each). Students of different academic year will be selected randomly to make sure the selected students cover the age from 11 to 18.To those above 18, we will use Postcode Address File as the sampling frame.200 people would be selected randomly from the sample frame.

Selected people would be pre-screened their qualifications to take part in the interviews by a prepared questionnaire. The questionnaire would include: whether or not they are smokers, if they are not, the end of the pre-screening; if they are, information regarding demographic, socio-economic classifications, how long they’ve smoked, how many cigarettes they smoke per day, locations they smoke, have they tried to quit in the past 1 year, how they dispose smoking-related litter, will be asked to provided in order to help in screening. All the questionnaires would be done and collected on-line, to reduce possible uncomfortable feelings of giving true answers.

We propose fours groups (6 participants each group) with the following profiles based on the result of the pre-screening:

• Group 1: mixed gender; aged 11 to 18; smokers who tried to quit in the past 1 year.
• Group 2: mixed gender; aged 20 to 45; smokers who tried to quit in the past 1year; with managerial or professional occupations.
• Group 3: mixed gender, aged 20 to 45; smokers who tried to quit in the past 1 year; with intermediate occupations.
• Group 4: mixed gender; aged 20 to 45; smokers who tried to quit in the past 1 year; with routine or manual occupations.

Actually, the best scenario would be the participants in a single group with homogeneous profiles in gender, age and socio-economic classification. In that case, possible conflicts would be avoided and participants would feel more comfortable to open their mouths, what’s more important, we could obtain more reliable results from the research. However, given the limited budget, the above scenario is a relatively suitable one.

3. Procedure

A skilled moderator will in charge of the group interviews. Questions flow on topic guide generated for the interviews will be followed (but not exactly in the order as the flow, for the reason that the interviews on some level should be free-flowing.) The interviews will approximately last 2 hours. The process of interviews will be videoed with permissions of participants. Moderator will also make notes during the interviews.

 4) Data analysis: The data of interviews from videotapes and notes the moderator makes during interviews, will be retrieved, organised and interpreted into meaningful units. Focus will be put on seeking the motivations of smokers to smoke and quit; how they dispose smoking-related litter and the advice they give on improving smokers’ behaviour regarding smoking-related litter.

3.2.1.2 Observation

1. Purpose: to see how smokers deal with smoking-related litter in real life through field observations. The observations would be classified as structured (observing how people would dispose cigarette ends after smoking), disguised (observations without informing respondents) and natural (the observed behaviour takes place in natural environment).

2. Data collection: observations would take place in a certain areas of different types of areas across Cardiff. Areas would be coded generally as 5 categories: places near schools, shopping malls, senior offices, factories, market. 8 areas (2 of each category) would be chosen as places of observation. The observations would be undertaken by an observer and they last for 3 days. A single observation lasts for 1 hour. During the observations progress, observers will mark down place the observation take place, targeted behaviour of smokers they encounter as well as field notes. When observation ends, observer is required to fill an observation form.
3. Data analysis: The collected data would be generated as a small report with showing percentages of smokers who inappropriately dispose smoking-related litter and likely relationship between ways of disposing the litter and socio-economic status.

       :

3. 2. 2 Quantitative researches

In light of analysing reports generated at the two previous stages, we could start our last phase of the research. We are planning to conduct the quantitative research on Online Access Panel, which is a more cost-effective access to meet the need of saving budget comparing to face to face interviews and on phone. The way we contact the desired respondents could efficiently balance the budget and the number of respondents of the research. What’s more, finishing questionnaires on Online Access Panel makes respondents feel more private and comfortable so that they would be more likely to give true answers when being asked sensitive questions, for example: how smokers usually deal with smoking related litter.

1. Purpose: The objective of the phase is mainly to measure how smokers feel about the motivations, reasons and ideas on smoking-related behaviour and attitudes we explore at the second stage. Measurement and analyse would be done to identify how widespread these feelings.
2. Population and sampling: 200 interviews of different gender and different socio-economic classification will be carried out in order to obtain more subjective and reliable data which could also give us opportunity to see how smoking-related opinions and behaviours differ by gender and socio-economic classification.

Quotas we set are displayed as follows:

3. Procedure and data analysis:

    The questionnaire is displayed in Appendices (specific questionnaire could not be formed without a result from previous phases, thus the questionnaire shown in Appendices is just a sample. There would be approximate 20 questions in the formal version of questionnaire.) The questionnaire would be pre-coded and all the data would be analysed by SPSS.

• Category 1:Q1---Q3 are asking for demographic and socio-economic information of respondents, they would be useful when we do the analysis of comparing them with the rest of variables. We would have an insight into how smoking-related opinions and behaviour differ by different age, gender and socio-economic status.
• Category 2:Q4---Q5 are questions related to smoking level and behaviour. They could be used to measure the differences of attitudes and motivations of smoking-related behaviour based on different smoking level and behaviour.
• Category 3:Q6----Q9 are questions about attitudes to different reasons for smokers to smoke, quit and re-smoke. They would be measured combined with the demographic and socio-economic status, as well as smoking level and behaviour category, to see whether there are relationships between these pairs of variables.
• Category 4:Q1O is the question about the different levels of usage in terms of different sources of help/advice/information on smoking. The data of the question would be analysed with demographic and socio-economic category to have an interesting idea on the different biases of sources of help/information/advice when it comes to age, gender and socio-economic status.
• Category 5:Q11---Q12 are about behaviour and attitudes to smoking related litter. They would be measured with category 1 and category 2 to see whether there are relationships between pairs of variables.
• Category 6: Q13 is about recommendations on improvement of behaviour regarding smoking-related litter. The purpose of the question is to explore constructive and feasible ways to deal the issue. It is an open-ended question. The data of its will be classified into similar categories by skilled analysis’s.

Ⅳ.Reporting

The three phases of research will be followed by analysis report of each phase. After finishing all phases, a final analysis report covering all the findings in every phase will be prepared, along with drawing conclusions that inform decision-making of the new campaign.

Ⅴ.Cost and time tables

Adjustments of cost and time would be made to meet the changes in operational process if of necessity.

• Cost table:

The cost is a little exceeding the budget but it is the best scenario after careful evaluation in terms of factors of all aspects. We recommend you adopting the scenario for the reason that it could provide you more optimum and desired data.

• Time table:

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Ⅵ.Appendices

Observation form for behaviour of smoking-related litter

• Location  (please circle)

Near schools           Near shopping mall          Near senior offices

Near factories        Near market

• Date (DD/MM/YY)                

• Start Time (24hr)

• Finish Time (24hr)

• Number of smokers encountered

• Number of smokers littering smoking-related rubbishes

• Additional notes:

Thank you for spending time on the questionnaire!

1. Gender: (please circle)

                  1).Male  

                  2).Female

     

      2. Age: (please circle)

             1). Under 16

                  2). 17 ----25

                  3)   26-----40

                  4)   40-----55

                  5)   Above 55

     

      3. Socio-economic status: (please circle)

                                                1) Students;

                                                2) Managerial or professional occupations

                                                3) Intermediate occupations

                                                4) Routine and manual occupations

                                                5) Small employers and own account workers

                                                5) Never worked and long-term unemployed

     

     4. Do you smoke now? : (please circle)

                                             1) No, and I haven’t smoked before. (Thank you for participating in the questionnaire, please go to the end of questionnaire and submit it.)

                                            2) Yes, I do. (Go to Q 5)

                                            3) No, I quitted it. (Go to Q7)

     5. How many cigarettes normally you smoke per day? ____

 

     6. Have you tried to give up smoking in the past? (Please circle)

    1) Yes                                              2) NO (Skip Q7)

   

 7. What are the reasons that make you decide to quit? (You may choose more than one option and please rank the options as required):

     

8. What are the benefits of smoking? (Please rank all the options)

        

                 

 9. Why do you think it is hard to quit smoking? (Please rank all the options)

        

                

10.What are the sources of information/advance/help on smoking consider as useful ? (Please rank all the options)

                                                 

11. How do you dispose smoking-related litter?(please circle)

1. I always drop them any where.

2. I normally put them in ash-bin.

12. What do you think are the reasons for smokers to discard smoking-related litter any where? (Please rank all the options)

13. What will you recommend to improve the behaviour of smokers regarding smoking-related litter? (Please write down your opinions)

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Ⅶ.References

1. Welsh Assembly Government ,2009. .[PDF]Available at: http://wales.gov.uk/docs/statistics/2009/090929sdr1462009en.pdf?lang=en[Accessed 30 October 2009]

2. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care,2008.  .[PDF]London: Department of Heath. Available at:http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_health/smoking2008-9.pdf[Accessed 30 October 2009]

3. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care, 2008.Statistics on smoking: England 2008. [PDF] London: Department of Heath. Available at: http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/smoking09/Statistics_on_smoking_England_2009.pdf [Accessed 30 October 2009]

4.The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care, 2008. Drug use, smoking and drinking among young people in England 2008. [PDF]London: Department of  Heath. Available at:  [Accessed 30 October 2009]

 5.Naresh K. Malhotra, David F. Birks.2007.Marketing Research: An Applied Approach.3rd ed. Chester (CT): Pearson.

6.

7.http://cymru.gov.uk/topics/health/improvement/smoking/cessation/;jsessionid=ZnTQKJ9GX6R6L6pLCpYhQSnyQCbmtFrhgbzy4hG9F14ktf4PRvpr!442808764?lang=en&ts=3