American Football and CTE
Over the years, American football has been celebrated throughout the world. It is rated among the World’s most watched sporting events. This sport is however associated with various injuries on the players due to its nature (Korngold, Farrell & Fozdar, 2013). The players often engage in extremely serious actions so as to fascinate their fans. This way, the players experience head traumas repetitively which over time result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). It has been observed that most of the players usually meet their death a short period after their retirement (Omalu &DeKosky, 2005). The rise in the number of American football players has raised a lot of concern to what could possibly be the cause of the deaths whereby some people have associated CTE with their deaths and other possible causes. The objective of this study is to find out the extent to which CTE could have a direct relationship with the death of the players.
For this study, the type of mixed methods research to be used is the sequential explanatory design. Sequential explanatory design involves the collection of data over a given duration in two phases consecutively. Quantitative data is first collected and analyzed. In the second phase, qualitative data is collected and is then used to give an explanation of the quantitative results that were initially obtained (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). The primary benefit of this method is that it increases the chances of achieving results that are more trustworthy as compared to applying the two approaches separately.
Based on this mixed method design, quantitative data will be first listed followed by qualitative data. Since this study is determined to find out if truly there is a direct relationship between the deaths of the players and CTE, the first approach will be to collect the numbers of deaths of players over a given period of time. These statistics will be acquired from the website belong to the National football league. The deaths will be classified based on the cause while putting together those caused by CTE. This way, quantitative data will have been achieved and will be compared to others deaths not associated with CTE to determine the percentages.
After acquiring and analyzing quantitative data, the results obtained will be further verified in the second phase. The next step will involve the collection of qualitative data from analysis of previously researched works on the relationship between CTE and death of players, and also from medical professionals dealing with CTE patients. The results obtained in this phase will be compared and contrasted with the results obtained in the first phase. The similarity levels from the analysis will then help in coming up with the conclusion of the study. The qualitative approach will be applied in providing an explanation for the outcomes of the quantitative approach in order to give a better comprehension of the concepts at hand.
The procedures for mixing within this study will involve the following. The first procedure will involve the selection of a mixed methods strategy to be applied during the study (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). Here, the researcher will select the most preferable design, a visual model of the same and also the reasons for choosing the design. Moreover, the amount of time expected to be consumed by the entire process is factored in. Here, the amount of time expected to be used in collecting and also carrying out analysis of both quantitative data and qualitative data relating to the death of players and CTE will be factored in.
The next procedure involves the procedures for collection of data. In this procedure, the researcher clearly defines the type of data to be collected and the preferred sampling techniques and strategies for the same. Moreover, the approaches to be applied in determining the validity of the data are also defined. The final procedure involves the analysis of data and validation. In this step, the researcher is tasked with transforming the data collected and also exploring outliers. Here, qualitative data on the relationship between the death of players and CTE is quantified thus making it easier for the researcher to compare qualitative and quantitative results. This way, the researcher will then be able to hypothesize whether it is true that the death of players shortly after retirement is a result of CTE or not.
References
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Daly, C. D. (2013). American football. Minnesota History, 19-27.
Korngold, C., Farrell, H. M., & Fozdar, M. (2013). The National Football League and chronic traumatic encephalopathy: legal implications. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 41(3), 430-436.
Omalu, B. I., DeKosky, S. T., Minster, R. L., Kamboh, M. I., Hamilton, R. L., & Wecht, C. H. (2005). Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a National Football League player. Neurosurgery, 57(1), 128-134.