Free Health Dissertations - Perry (2002) Demonstrates This Through His Own Research Methods And Findings.
Perry (2002) demonstrates this through his own research methods and findings. His research was based on a sample group of 154 residents from 48 different residential homes in the South East Wales and South West England. The purpose of Perry’s (2002) research was to investigate the use of a number of objective and subjective measures of three commonly assessed quality of life domains: choice, constructive activity, and social and community affiliation. As well as assessing the quality of life of people with learning difficulties Perry (2002) felt it equally important to assess how the individual responded to the items presented to them intended to measure this. For example, the study in question paid attention to the extent to which people of differing abilities could respond to the user-respondent measures and is this done so without response bias? This refers to the validity of the scale being used to address quality of life measures, is the scale appropriate to the user group or is the user simply guessing what they feel is the appropriate response? Perry (2002) reported from his study that scales of satisfaction could not be used properly by 2/3 of the sample. Therefore, this adds questioning to the validity of research in this area. If only 1/3 of respondents can use the scales properly, how can quality of life be accurately assessed?
Quality of life is not only about reporting the good things one feels about their life, but also life’s dissatisfactions. Perry (2002) felt that is was important to ask whether a different perspective is obtained if the individual is given free opportunity to talk about areas of dissatisfaction rather than being asked to respond to a scale of satisfaction. The autonomy of what can be expressed is argued to be an important feature of how one will feel about their quality of life. If the individual finds it difficult to express themselves, the opportunity to do is believed to improve their ability to do so or at least improve their confidence and self-assertiveness in situations that are dis-satisfactory. Furthermore, Perry (2002) suggests that it is important also to compare staff proxy responses with resident responses in residential setting to see where the responses are affected by the presence of others. It was found in Perry (2002) study that there was a lack of agreement between staff proxy responding and resident responding. Thus this indicates that staff proximity has an influence on responses made that may confound the results of the final outcome of quality of life.
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