Population Health: Quantitative Research on Illicit Drug Use

This report presents a quantitative research study on illicit drug use among young people in Australia. The research aimed to investigate the normalization of drug use among the youth. The study utilized an online questionnaire, collecting data from participants aged 16-35. The questionnaire included questions about the type of drugs used (Cannabis, Amphetamines, Ecstasy, LSD, Cocaine, and Alcohol), frequency of use, and reasons for drug use. The study also involved pretesting using a 'Think Aloud Approach' to refine the questionnaire. The findings revealed that cannabis had the highest lifetime use, followed by amphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy. The report details the questionnaire development process, including question design, response options, and demographic questions. The study also explored the impact of drug use on various aspects of the participants' lives, including family life and stress levels. The report includes a discussion of the pretesting procedure and the modifications made to the questionnaire based on participant feedback. The report also provides the questionnaire items and the references used for the research. The study highlights the importance of understanding drug use patterns among young Australians for public health interventions.

Running Head: Population Health: A Research Perspective
Assignment 3: Quantitative Research
Population Health: A Research Perspective
Topic: Illicit Drug Use among people in Australia
Student Name:
Student Number:
Word Count:………
Referencing Style: APA Referencing

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
REPORT
Quantitative Research Aim/ Question
The aim of the quantitative research is to investigate whether the illicit drug use has become
normalized practice among the youth in Australia
Justification of the items
Instructions:
The purpose of this study is to conduct quantitative analysis of illicit drug use among the
Australian youth. Data was collected through online web based questionnaire asked from the
respondents though email to which they responded back with complete answers. The results
indicated that the youth aged 25-44 years are more inclined towards drug use and reported
negative experiences of illicit drug use (Nathan, 2016).
The questions are based on the findings from previous research and statistics obtained from a
report ‘Australia’s Health 2018’ submitted by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; and a
quantitative study by Boys, Marsden & Strang (2001).
Questions
The questions were mainly based on six target substances mainly (Cannabis, Amphetamines,
Ecstasy, LSD, Cocaine and Alcohol). The interview questionnaire was conducted using
appropriate research protocol. Interviewees were re-contacted over telephone to eliminate the
inconsistencies and verify the collected data.
Response Options

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
The questionnaire included 17 item scale from five domains (Changing moods, Physical effect,
Social Purpose, Facilitate Activity and Manage effects from other substances). For the first
question, the responses were measured using five point Likert scale showing 0-5 for Never to
Always. For drugs Cocaine, Ecstasy and Amphetamine, the interviewees were asked whether
they have ever used these drugs for reducing weight? For Alcohol and Cannabis, the question
was: Have you ever taken drugs to help you sleep?
The responses were collected from 25 participants who were selected through personal contacts.
The participants were all young people aged between 16-35 who were doing job after completing
their college or were studying at college. The mean age of the participants was 19.2 years. 12/25
were unemployed at the time of data collection, 5 was in education, 5 was in full time
employment and remaining 3 was in part time job. The monthly disposable income was
approximately 0 to 1000 AUD (median 200 AUD). The responses revealed that the drug with
highest lifetime use was cannabis (96%) followed by Amphetamine (52%), cocaine (50%) and
ecstacy (48%) (Day, 2018). Most of the participants were poly substance users. The studies
showed no gender differences in drug usage.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Topic Related Items
1. Do you take any drug? If yes, which drug you use?
2. Since how many years you are taking it? The responses included four options: <1 year, 1-
3 years, >3 years, Lifetime.
3. Why do you take it? The response to this item was explanatory open ended and was
falling into one of the five domains.
4. How often you take it? Multiple times in a day OR Once a day.
5. How you started taking illicit drugs? How did you come to know about these drugs for
the first time? The answer to this question should be the description of circumstances
which triggered the drug taking habit.
6. Is there any side effect if you miss a dose of regular use? Response was descriptive and
open ended. It varied from person to person.

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
Demographic Questions
1. What is your name?
2. What is your age, gender, highest qualification and current job?
3. May I know, if anyone in your family takes illicit drugs?
4. Are you married/Divorced or unmarried? Married OR Divorced OR single
5. How many Children you have? None OR One OR >1.
6. Do you think stress can be relieved by the drug use?
7. Does the drug intake habit affect your family life?
Discussion of Pretesting Procedure
The pretest process used in this research was Think Aloud Approach’ through telephonic
conversation. The five participants who were educated with good educational backgrounds were
contacted through telephone. The potential problematic questions that were skipped, erased,
overlooked, misread or not answered by the participants and also the questions which took long
time to be answered were identified and noted down. Out of 25 respondents who filled up and
sent the questionnaire back to us through email, we conducted telephonic pretest for 5
respondents.
The feedback collected from the pretest found that the questionnaire was comprehensive and
gave the participants full opportunity to explain their point of view. Depending on the feedback,
I reordered few questions to improve the readability and understanding level to suit the subjects
of all education standards. The participants also reported that they need to be provided brief
general instructions and context of the questionnaire before they start answering the questions.
They also said that their identity should be kept confidential and safe without disclosing their
name at any point of time in the results. Appropriate punctuation question marks were put in the
questionnaire wherever needed. They suggested using hyperlinks to provide more information
about the question by giving some examples. For example – ‘Read if necessary’ hyperlink can be

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
provided at the webpage after every question, to enable the subjects understand the questions
more clearly with examples. We found the feedback important and valuable.
In ‘think aloud’ process, I encouraged the subjects to speak their views while asking the
questions. In this method, the responses may reveal greater insights into the thought process
undergone by the participants while filling up the questionnaire (Wang, 2014). It involves their
ability to retrieve the memories (Pew Research Center, 2019). The answers to pretest process
helps to identify whether the questionnaire met the objectives (Hurst, 2015).
I would like to make few changes in the questionnaire. I would reduce the complexity of
questions by shortening their length and replacing complex words with the simple ones. I would
also reorder the statements to arrange them in logical flow of topic. I would like to include
hyperlinks to provide the additional information about the context of the question, that would
help the participants understand them more effectively.
QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT
The responses of the participants involved detailed description about the type of drug being used,
the frequency of use and the need for using it. The responses involved open ended and close
ended questions related to the research topic. The questions were short and focused to the
research topic and involved only the Australian native participants.
The questions were specific, clear, direct and explained the intent of the question. The questions
were framed in the vocabulary used by participants considering their education level, and using
the words easily understood by them. Language was very simple, informal and involved all the
information that the participant needs to answer the question in terms of time frame, and context.
The sequence of the questions followed a predefined flow from general to the specific. In close
ended questions the participants were given some common answer choices.

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
The questionnaire was developed considering the trend and statistics of illicit drug use in
previously completed research by Boys, Marsden & Strang (2001). Adequate space was provided
to write the answers for open ended questions. Statistic software is used to analyze the collected
responses. The questionnaire sent through email is chosen because the participants were located
at distant places where it was not possible to reach within limited time frame. The web based
questionnaire provides a cost effective way to collect the responses from all the five participants
easily within a specified time frame (Kaminski, 2016).
This research along with recent data collected from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
2018, provided effective data to frame my questionnaire and collect the responses from wide
range of related aspects.
I modified the existing items to suit the drug use trend in Australia by eliminating the context of
UK as discussed in the literature of Boys et al 2001.I also consulted few other existing peer
reviewed journals for identifying the trend and pattern of drug addiction in young Australians.
The questionnaire followed the ‘principle of universal presentation’, providing same set of
questions for each participant (Pew Research Center, 2019). The intent and meaning of the
question along with the response options was consistent. The questionnaire collected equivalent
set of information.
PRE-TEST THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Pretesting is an important part of questionnaire development task. It uses a cognitive
interviewing approach providing the views of the participants regarding how they processed the
questions while responding (GAO Internal Resource, 2017). I used concurrent ‘think aloud
technique’ to organize the pretest through telephonic interview. The potential problematic
questions that were skipped, erased, overlooked, misread or not answered by the participants and
also the questions which took long time to be answered were identified and noted down. Out of
25 respondents who filled up and sent the questionnaire back to us through email, we conducted
telephonic pretest for 5 respondents. The questions asked in pretest process were:

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
1. Was the questionnaire sufficient to cover all the things related to the topic? Was the
questionnaire comprehensive?
2. Do you think that there is something missing that we did not include in the questionnaire?
3. Do you find any of the questions that we should omit from the questionnaire list?
4. Was the questionnaire of appropriate length? Was it too short, long or accurate in size?
Did you skip or not answer few questions? Why?
5. How was your experience of revealing the answers to the questions? Was it pleasant or
difficult to reply and write the answers over the electronic form.
6. Do you think that the questionnaire if was collected through personal meeting or
interview could be better or not?
I thanked the participants and appreciated for their timely responses, filling up and sending the
response forms through email.
The pretest involved 5 participants from the 25 people who completed the questionnaire. These 5
participants were those having highest level of education and good job experience. They were
intellectuals with quality knowledge on the research topic.
REFERENCES
Wang,R. (2014). Six steps to create effective questionnaire. Retrieved from
https://www.edelman.com/post/six-steps-creating-effective-questionnaire
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW] (2018). Australia’s Health 2018. Illicit Drug
Use. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/36cb0f35-1d96-47bf-84f9-
1eb8583ad7de/aihw-aus-221-chapter-4-7.pdf.aspx
Boys,A., Marsden,J. & Strang,J.(2001) Understanding reasons for drug use amongst young
people: a functional perspective, Health Education Research, 16(4), 457–
469, https://doi.org/10.1093/her/16.4.457

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
Day, N., Criss, J., Griffiths, B., Gujral, S. K., John-Leader, F., Johnston, J., & Pit, S. (2018).
Music festival attendees' illicit drug use, knowledge and practices regarding drug
content and purity: a cross-sectional survey. Harm reduction journal, 15(1), 1.
doi:10.1186/s12954-017-0205-7
GAO Internal Resource (2017). Questionnaire Pretest Procedure. Retrieved from
https://www.ignet.gov/sites/default/files/files/14_Questionnaire_Pretest_Procedures.
pdf
Hurst, S., Arulogun, O. S., Owolabi, A. O., Akinyemi, R., Uvere, E., Warth, S., & Ovbiagele, B.
(2015). Pretesting Qualitative Data Collection Procedures to Facilitate
Methodological Adherence and Team Building in Nigeria. International journal of
qualitative methods, 14, 53–64.
Kaminski,K.(2016). A QUANTITATIVE INVESTIGATION EXPLORING ILLICIT DRUG USE
INSIDE AND OUT OF THE FOODSERVICE INDUSTRY. Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3955&context=etd
Nathan,S.(2016). Examining the pathways for young people with drug and alcohol dependence:
a mixed-method design to examine the role of a treatment programme. BMJ Journals.
6(5). 12-36. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010824
Pew Research Center (2019). Questionnaire Design. Retrieved from
https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/u-s-survey-research/questionnaire-design/

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
APPENDICES
QUESTIONS OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Topic Related Items
1. Do you take any drug? If yes, which drug you use?
Drug with highest lifetime use was cannabis (96%) followed by Amphetamine (52%),
cocaine (50%) and ecstacy (48%) (Day, 2018). Most of the participants were poly
substance users.
2. Since how many years you are taking it?
The responses included four options: <1 year, 1-3 years, >3 years, Lifetime.
Most of the people were taking lifetime Cannabis (57%), while few were using the drugs
since 5-6 years (10%). The participants who just started using them were just 3%.
3. Why do you take it?
To this question, the responses were grouped into six domains: The 17 reasons for taking
the drugs were as follows:
 It makes me feel better when I m depressed or down.
 It supports me keep going when I m outing with my friends at night.
 It makes me feel euphoric or elated.
 It help me intoxicate myself.
 I help me lose weight.
 It improved the joy when we are together with friends.
 It makes me relaxed.
 It elevates my confidence level, and I can indulge in social talks more
aggressively.
 It has improved effect on overall personality
 It makes me stay awake.
 I may lose my inhibitions after taking the dose
 It accelerates my pleasure when I m having sex.

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
 It reduces my worry about my problems.
 It reduces boredom
 It increases my concentration at job
 It supports me to fell asleep.
 It improves my performance and activity level at sports or while listening music.
4. How often you take it? Multiple times in a day OR Once a day.
Taking it once a day is compulsory. I take two or three doses when I m at holidays.
5. How you started taking illicit drugs? How did you come to know about these drugs for
the first time? The answer to this question should be the description of circumstances
which triggered the drug taking habit.
Most of the times the young people start taking drugs to solve their mental problems.
However, the addiction to these drugs becomes another problem for them. Most of the
respondents came to know about these drugs through friends.
6. Is there any side effect if you miss a dose of regular use?
Response was descriptive and open ended. It varied from person to person. Skipping the
drug dose could cause repeated bouts of vomiting and nausea. Other symptoms were
dryness of mouth, headache, paranoid thinking, drowsiness, dizziness etc.
Demographic Questions
8. What is your name?
9. What is your age, gender, highest qualification and current job?
10. May I know, if anyone in your family takes illicit drugs?
11. Are you married/Divorced or unmarried? Married OR Divorced OR single
12. How many Children you have? None OR One OR >1.
13. Do you think stress can be relieved by the drug use?

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Population Health: A Research Perspective
Most of the participants were taking drugs with an aim to relieve their stress and get
sleep.
14. Does the drug intake habit affect your family life?
Most of the time the person remains isolated if not given the dose. He cannot indulge in
the family affairs naturally. His intent is driven by the drug addiction. Most of the family
members oppose the drug taking habits leading to violence at home.
PRETEST QUESTIONS
1. Was the questionnaire sufficient to cover all the things related to the topic? Was the
questionnaire comprehensive?
Yes. More information could be provided about the questions and their context through
Hyperlinks.
2. Do you think that there is something missing that we did not include in the questionnaire?
The questionnaire touched all the functions. It could involve more questions related to
our history of addiction.
3. Do you find any of the questions that we should omit from the questionnaire list?
None specifically
4. Was the questionnaire of appropriate length? Was it too short, long or accurate in size?
Did you skip or not answer few questions? Why?
Yes. Few questions were complex. Could be reordered replacing difficult words with
simple ones.
5. How was your experience of revealing the answers to the questions? Was it pleasant or
difficult to reply and write the answers over the electronic form.
It was great to relive the experiences related to my past.
6. Do you think that the questionnaire if was collected through personal meeting or
interview could be better or not?
No. It has served the purpose.

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Population Health: A Research Perspective