Introduction
Survey research is one of the methods that a researcher can use to collect information about a given study phenomenon for the purpose of making comprehensive inferences about the subject being studied. As such, survey research is described as any research work that involves the collection of the required data by engaging study participants through asking them questions that a related to the topic under examination (Mitchell & Jolly, 2010). A survey research can either be in the form of interviews or questionnaires. However, the success of any research in this case is depended on how effective the research instruments are in terms of collecting the desired data.
Fort this reason, it is important to ensure that the development of a questionnaire for any survey or even an interview schedule focuses on the major area of researcher’s interest. For example, there are numerous factors to consider during the development of a questionnaire with the most important of aspects highlighted below.
An appropriate questionnaire should be short, ensure respondent’s task is simple and concrete, provide straightforward and specific instructions, use simple, clear and unambiguous language, and rationalize any unclear items. In addition, it is important to examine the final document to ensure that all important issues and needs for the specific study are catered for.
Recent Dental Health Research Study
Fan, Wang, Xu, and Zheng (2016) conducted a recent dental health research study using survey method to examine the risk factors of early childhood caries among children in Beijing. This study makes use of the survey approach whereby parents of the randomly sampled children are required to fill a structured questionnaire to help in the examination of the factors that influence the development of dental caries in young children.
The Significance of the Results
According to this study, there was a significant correlation between dental visit history, mutans streptococci level especially in dental plaque, and the prevalence rate of caries in children (Fan et al., 2016). As such, the survey identified that one of the risk factors of early childhood caries is plaque mutans streptococci.
Therefore, the results from the study by Fan et al. (2016) are highly significant for my study. This is attributable to the fact that such results provide important information on the causal factors of early childhood caries. By understanding that plaque mutans streptococci causes early childhood caries I will make use of such information when carrying out my study to examine the level of plaque mutans streptococci in the sampled children for a chance to understand their state of early childhood caries.
In spite of the significance of this research as far as the provision of reliable information about the causal factors of ECC goes, the study had a number of limitations and bias, with the significant one being that it did not identify the causal correlation between the development of caries and the specific level of mutans streptococci in dental plaque.
Identification of a Sufficient Sample Size
A sample size in a study can be small or large. The identification of the sufficient sample size depends on the required data, the available resources for any study, as well as the level of precision needed in the given study. The reduction of bias in a sample size can be achieved through randomization since such a technique ensures that the selection of the sample to be used in a study is based on equal opportunity (Mitchell & Jolly, 2010). In the case of the proposed study, the simple random sampling technique will be used to identify the preferred sample size. The choice of the random sampling technique is informed by the fact that it avoids human bias.
References
Fan, C., Wang, W., Xu, T., & Zheng, S. (2016). Risk factors of early childhood caries among children in Beijing: a case-control study. BMC Oral Health, 16(1), 23-46.
Mitchell, M., & Jolly, J. (2010). Research design explained. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.