Relationship between Maori

Mental Health and Smoking  

By: Sol Lim

Why I chose this topic and research

• Smoking and nicotine dependency rates for those who have a mental health disorder are significantly higher than the general population

• Maori have the highest rate of smoking than other New Zealanders.

• Tobacco smoking may increase risks of some mental disorders.

• No research focused on a specific ethnicity.

How does smoking affect Maori who have a Mental Disorder?

Why I chose the specific methodology

and methods • Methodology used - qualitative

research, because a quantitative research may be effective in providing a scientific understanding of this issue, it lacks the deep understanding behind cultural reasoning for this issue.

• Sampling method - Purposeful sampling (maximum variation), the particular group of people who will be selected are Maori and have a mental health diagnosis, and the wide variation in this research will be the variation of mental illness.

Why I chose the specific methodology and methods

• Data collection• When - a suitable time whenever the participant

feels comfortable with during the first six months of starting research, so that a follow up interview can be arranged six months later (this time must be arranged between the interviewer and participant). The total duration of research is 12 months.

• Where - in a closed room in the inpatient or community mental health service where it is quiet.

• How long - About an hour long• Instruments used - researcher (as the interviewer),

interview room, and voice recorder.

Sample Questions

• How does smoking affect your illness? • How does absence of smoking affect your illness?• What are the barriers that you had in managing your

condition?• Have you thought about quitting, if so, do you have a plan?• How do the health professionals help you with this issue?• What do you think health professionals can improve to help

you with smoking?• Have you tried stop smoking before, if so, how was the

experience?• Do you have support (friends and family), how do they help

you with this issue?• What is the most unpleasant experience of smoking?• Do you think smoking has a relation to your illness?

Why I chose the specific methodology and methods

• Reflexability - questions are specific, clear, and not open to personal interpretation

• Credibility – prolonged engagement (for example, 1 hour interview and follow up interview).

• Confirmability – Voice recorders also allow the researcher’s colleagues, who are experienced in qualitative methods, to go back to the interview to verify and clarify the researcher’s perspective.

• Auditabilty – Clear paper trail

How I would analyze the data

• Data will be analyzed using a grounded theory method• Four stages of analysing data: comparing, integrating,

delimiting, and writing theory

• Comparing: involves the process of comparing each incidents applicable to each category be gathered, allowing us to be able to identify concepts.

• Integrating: allows us to integrate the collection of concepts by breaking down, comparing, and examining it to identify key points within the concepts.

• Delimiting: ignore some concepts initially identified which are irrelevant to the research.

• Writing theory: process of putting all the gathered data in to writing to share with others

How I would analyze the data

Other specific data analysis strategies:

• reading and re-reading

transcripts of interviews• creating a conceptual map to

make sense of the data in relation to the research question

• sometimes returning findings to the participants for validation.

• compare findings with other literature with what is known about the concepts that have been uncovered in the study (fittingness)

Implications for practice of my study

• Health care professionals will be able to gain insight and identify the underlying reasons, why Maori with a mental health disorder smoke, in order to address these issues. And therefore, it may benefit the health of Maoris with mental health disorders.

Any questions?