Research
Proposal
Table of Contents
Introduction. 3
Purpose of the study. 3
General background for
the study. 3
Guiding questions. 4
Delimitations and
limitations. 4
Significance of the study. 5
Methodology. 6
Theoretical framework. 6
Type of design. 6
Role of the researcher 7
Data collection
strategies. 7
Data analysis strategies. 8
Findings (Review of the
related literature) 8
Management Plan and
Timeline. 10
Reference List 11
The use of technology is
increasing. However, the use of such technology for longer periods is leading
to adverse health outcomes. However, individual have not attempted to decrease
the time that is being spent on smartphones and tablets, on the contrary, they
have been resorting to the attempt of increasing the time that they spend with
smartphones and tablets. One of the major reasons why such situations are
witnessed is because most of the users are not aware of these adverse effects.
This is evidenced by the fact that More than 60% of the individuals are not
well aware about the existence of the adverse effect that are linked to the
prolong use of technological equipment such as smartphones. The study serves
the purpose of improving their awareness by bridging the knowledge gap and
providing simple yet extensive information about the impact of technology on
health adversity.
The innovative forms of
technology have been attracting the children significantly. The excessive
incursion of the smartphone and tablets within the markets has made such
technological devices an important part of the life. However, the use of
technology has its own set of challenges when it comes to well being of the
individuals. The extensive dependence on technology is witnessed to have
associations with the increased instances of obesity and overweight conditions.
The constant use of technological gadgets such as smartphone is also being
accounted as the main causative factor for the elevated number of physical
disorders and metabolic breakdown. Overall, the involvement with technology is
gaining popularity as an element that is responsible for undermining the
overall quality of life of the children. In addition to that, the elevated
screen time plays a key role in reducing the opportunities of the children to
socialise and interact with others, thereby adversely affecting their normal
development of expressive social skills. Technology use comes of as a severe
interference with the daily activities of the children that results in
decreased physical activity. More than 3.2 million individuals perish due to
the lack of physical activity (Alotaibi
et al., 2020). Therefore, it poses as a risk factor for high mortality.
In the last decade, the
population that has been indulging in the use of smartphones has been
increasing significantly across the globe. The concerns and predicament with
musculoskeletal problems have also grown significantly with this increased
popularity of using smartphones. There has been several instances where the
users of smartphones have reported pain in their neck and shoulders. In
addition to this, the severity of the pain scale that are associated with this
neck and shoulder ailments have grown progressively with the usage time of the
smartphones and tablets. One of the male interesting fact is that the
individuals who are making use of the smartphone for more than 4 hours have
been experiencing protusion and alterations in the craniovertebral angles (Jung et al., 2016). The adverse
effect of prolonged use of technological Devices such as smartphones on the posture
is not only limited to the spine deformity but also works its way through in
inflicting the issue of rounded shoulder. This is because the individuals that
spent more time on the smartphone have higher possibilities of suffering from
the rounded shoulder deformity than the individuals who spent lower amount of
time with smartphones. Another major negatives that is associated with the
extensive use of smartphones has been the increase in the posture deformity
such as Forward Head Posture. This is because the individual has to lean
forward to concentrate and watch on the small screen of the smartphone, which
in turn influences them to bend their neck more. This increased bending might
be the reason why the Forward Head Posture sets in. The adverse effects of the
sedentary lifestyle and prolonged sitting on the physical health are well
accounted. The change in the individual’s body posture are caused by the
utilisation of the smartphones and tablets for longer duration.
The appearance of new
technologies have been responsible for making life easier for the individuals.
While the advancement of technology has been provincial in serving to
innumerable benefits for the society, these advances have also been responsible
for bringing in detrimental concepts such as physical inactivity to life (Woessner et al., 2021). In the
previous times, the initiatives to complete household and domestic chores posed
as major scope for meeting the physical activity demands, however, the
incursion of automation technology such as the vaccumm cleaning bot and washing
machines has reduced the need to perform the domestic chores and in turn has
decreased physical activity. This has led to severe gap in physical fitness.
There have been several technologies that have been penetrating the daily life
of an individual. However, there has been three new technologies of interest
that have been adversely affecting the lives of the employees in the workplace.
The prevalence of such three technologies are the handheld devices, tablets and
touchscreen input such as smartphones. All the three technologies have been
found to have severe negative influence on the musculoskeletal health. The
primary risk to health that is associated with the innovative and improvised
technology is musculoskeletal disorder. This appears to be a new risk to the
health when brought to comparison with the traditional DSE technology.
· How
technology affect health risk?
· How
devices create physical inactivity
· How
technological devices lead to posture related issues?
· How
technology leads to reduce physical fitness?
The research objectives
are:
· To
analyse the effect of technology on health risk
· To
examine the impact of devices on physical inactivity
· To
evaluate the influence of the technological devices on posture related issues
· To
examine the affect of technology on physical fitness
Delimitations
· Not
research how to solve problem to reduce health issues
· Research
particular problem
Limitations
· Results
may improve everyone lifecycle
· By
solving problems, it will lead to progressive human productivity
The study will be
extremely helpful for the parents as it will educate them about the negative
prospects that their children might face in terms of posture deformity if they
use smartphone for longer duration. The study will be be quite significant for
individuals who are addicted to smartphones. This is because it will inform
them about the harmful effects on the musculoskeletal disorder and provide them
with scope to realise the potential of prolonged use of smartphone on life
threating issues.
Two theoretical
frameworks will be used in the research. The first theoretical framework is the
Self-Regulation theory. The second theoretical framework is the Temporal self-regulation
theory. In the Temporal self-regulation theory, it is proposed that the
physical activity behaviour is forecasted by the self-Regulatory capacity,
intention strength and behvaioral prepotency (Rebar et al., 2021). Whereas the self-determination
theory proposes that the behaviour of aligning with physical activity is based
on two types of motivation which includes the controlled and autonomous
motivation. Autonomous motivation for physical activity results in self
actualisation through enjoyment or achievement of goals (Rebar et al., 2021). On the other
hand, the controlled motivation for physical activity is grounded on the
factors of external pressure such as prevention of externally imposed
punishments and desire to reap external rewards.
The research design is
extremely important when it comes to driving the quality of the research
outcomes since it plays a crucial role in providing the researcher with the
direction and the steps that are necessary to complete the study on time. There
are three types of research design which includes the descriptive research
design, exploratory research design and explanatory research design. The
exploratory xresearch design involves the attempt to draw an outline of the
independent and dependent variables of the phenomenon. The explanatory research
design focuses on analysing the cause effect relationship. The descriptive
design emphasises on the explanation of an existing phenomenon. In the
research, the descriptive research design will be used. This is because the
study involves the analysis of the effects of technology on the health risk
which poses as the existing phenomenon and such requirements are adddressed by
the use of descriptive research design as it is characterised for its capacity
of evaluating phenomenon accurately. In the findings of Siedlecki (2020), it is supported that the
descriptive research design is vested with the strength of explaining the
phenomenon with expressive insight. Similar evidence can be observed in the
works of as the author suggest that the implications of the descriptive research
design has been effective in drawing credible inferences from a prevailing
phenomenon. Therefore, the use of the descriptive research design is justified.
The research approach is also crucial for the research as it plays an important
part in drawing inferences from the collected data to accomplish research aim
and objectives. The research approach are of two types which includes the
deductive and inductive approach. The deductive approach provides assistance to
the researcher when it comes to analysing objectives with theoretical
frameworks. Whereas, the inductive approach is associated with the studies that
are based on establishing theoretical framework through the evaluation of
research objectives or hypothesis. In the research, the deductive approach will
be used. This is because the research will make use of theoretical frameworks
such as the self-regulation and the self-determination theory and the deductive
approach addresses such requirement as it is known for its strength of
integrating the theoretical frameworks within the study. In the findings of Newman (2015), it is observed
that the research studies that have been associated with the deployment of
theoretical frameworks and models, have achieved success with the use of
deductive research approaches. Therefore, the selection of the deductive
approach for the research is justified.
The role of the
researcher has been significant. This is because the research can only be
carried out when the individual has proper knowledge of health and medical
conditions of body posture and such requirement is only met by an individual
who has proper qualification in medical science since it provides the
researcher with the prerequisite knowledge to identify the reliable information
that properly defines the effect of technology on body posture. Therefore, it
is observed why the researcher’s qualification in medical science is
important. There are two major assumptions which is selected for the research.
The first assumption is that the article that have shed inferences about the
technology’s impact on the health is readily available. The second assumption
is that the research articles are available in significant numbers.
The data collection is
one of the critical aspect of the study as it provides the researcher with the
platform of collecting reliable information, based on which the researcher is
able to draw accurate inferences to address the objectives. There are two types
of data collection which includes the primary and secondary data collection
method. In terms of primary data collection method, the information is gathered
from the opinions of the respondents. On the other hand, the secondary data is
collected by gathering information from scholarly articles and peer reviewed
journals. In the research, the secondary data collection will be used. This is
because the research involves the identification of the effect of technology on
the posture and physical fitness which requires experimental data from control,
observation groups and such requirement can only be met by secondary data
collection method as it provides the platform to gather such data by providing
research works that have conducted experimental study to test the interrelation
between the posture, physical fitness and technology. In addition to that, the
study focuses on recognising the influence of technology in driving health
risks. The recognition of such association might be adversely affected if the
collected data is inaccurate. The prevalence of such issue is addressed by the
use of secondary data collection with relative ease as it is known for
collecting reliable and accurate data. Similar finding can be observed in the
works of Johhson and Sylvia (2018) as the researcher
suggest that the secondary data collection is vested with the strengths of
collecting valid and accurate information. Therefore, the use of secondary data
collection is justified. The articles will be collected from NCBI and Google
Scholar. This is because the research involves a healthcare base topic and NCBI
is known for its possession of peer reviewed articles that are based on
healthcare. The long tail keywords such as “effect of technology on health risk”,
“impact of technology on posture”, “influence of the technology on physical
activity” and “impact of technology on the physical fitness”. Any paper that is
published after 2012 and is published in peer review journal should only be
considered for the study. This serves as the inclusion criteria of the paper.
Any paper that is not written in English should be excluded. After the
provision of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, twelve articles should be
considered for analysis.
The data analysis is
critical to the study since it helps in drawing conclusive inferences that can
be used to analyse the research objectives with extensive insight. In the
research, the data analysis will be conducted through thematic analysis. This is
because the relation between technology and physical fitness will only be
examined if only the relevant statistical data is analysed and such requirement
is met by the thematic analysis as it only highlights the relevant findings to
build the research theme by using its coding technique. In the works of Terry et al. (2017), it is
supported that the coding technique of the thematic analysis helps in
identifying the relevant exercpt from the data sample that is useful to
establish themes that are in alignment with the research objectives. Therefore,
the use of thematic analysis is justified. Four themes will be constructed.
Each theme will be developed by the evaluation of the four articles.
Effect of technology on
health risk
According to Winski (2015) the three
categories of improvised technologies which include the tablets, hand held
devices and tochscreen input were observed to have significant adverse effect
on health. The findings of Winski
et al. (2015) also state that the use of technology is associated with a
negative impact on the musculoskeletal disorder and poses as the dominant risk
as compared to the other health risks. These two findings are the key strengths
of the paper as seldom any research work has been able to shed such extensive
insight on the relation between the muscoskeletal disorder and handheld
technologies. In the support of the above findings, Eitivipart et al. (2018) have stated that the
increased use of the handheld technology share a negative association with the
musculoskeletal health. Therefore, it is analysed that the adoption of new
technologies in the form of hand held devices, tablets and touch screen input poses
as serious health risk.
Influence of the
technological devices on posture related issues
In the findings of Jung et al. (2016), it is
observed that the extensive utilisation of the smartphone technology could lead
to the deterioration of the posture. The observations from the paper also
suggest that the prolonged use of the smartphone has resulted in the faulty posture
such as the rounded shoulder, slouched posture and the forward neck posture.
The prevalence of such author’s viewpoint about the smartphone technology’s
effect on the posture is attributed to the dysfunction of the lumbar and
cervical spine. This is because the posture deformities only occur when the
lumbar and the cervical spine is subjected to structural deformation and the
use of the smartphone has been associated with the alterations in lumber and
cervical spine structure. In the findings of Patwardhan et al. (2015), it is supported that the
postural deformities arise only when the cervical spine and lumbar spine are
compromised in terms of structural integrity. Furthermore, has agreed that the
prolonged smartphone usage might be responsible in adversely affecting the
structural integrity of the lumbar spine. Therefore, it is analysed that the
adoption of smartphone technology has a negative impact on the posture due to
the changes in lumbar spine.
Impact of devices on
physical inactivity
According to Alotaibi et al. (2020) the
instances of physical fitness took a downfall with the increased adoption of
technology amongst the children. The results of Alotaibi et al. (2020) imply that the negative
correlation exists between the high level of physical activity and the use of
technology as the Pearson correlation between the two values at -0.138. This
finding of the paper is one of the key strengths as seldom previous research
work has been able to draw such statistical evidence to authenticate the
relation between the physical fitness and perceived dependence on technology
amongst the students.
According to Woessner et al. (2021) the
incursion of technology has been responsible for reducing the physical activity
amongst the population. The findings of Woessner et al. (2021) also suggest that the increase in the
obesity and the increase in the weight are the two types of adverse effects
that are associated with the use of the technology. The prevalence of such
perception from author about the impact of the technology is attributed to its
influence on sedentary lifestyle. This is because the sedentary lifestyle is
one of the causative factors for the high incidence rate of physical inactivity
and the adoption of technology is highlighted by its extensive association with
the growth in sedentary lifestyle. In the works of Anithakumari et al. (2018), it is supported that the
overdependence on the technology has shared a positive association with the
growth in the instances of sedentary lifestyle. Furthermore, González et al. (2017) have
proposed that the onset of sedentary lifestyle has been responsible for the
growing prevelance of health adversities such as physical inactivity.
Therefore, it is observed that the technology has a negative impact in terms of
driving physical activity due to its promotion of sedentary lifestyle.
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Activities
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Starting
date
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Duration
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ending
date
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Setting
Guiding question
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19-06-2024
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7
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26-06-2024
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Conducting
Literature Review
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26-06-2024
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7
|
03-07-2024
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Collecting
Secondary Data
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03-07-2024
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7
|
10-07-2024
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Analysis
of Data
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10-07-2024
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14
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24-07-2024
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Review
of the Draft
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24-07-2024
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14
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07-08-2024
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Submission
of the final file
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07-08-2024
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7
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14-08-2024
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Alotaibi,
T., Almuhanna, R., Alhassan, J., Alqadhib, E., Mortada, E. and Alwhaibi, R.,
2020, November. The relationship between technology use and physical activity
among typically-developing children. In Healthcare (Vol. 8,
No. 4, p. 488). MDPI.
Jung,
S.I., Lee, N.K., Kang, K.W., Kim, K. and Do, Y.L., 2016. The effect of
smartphone usage time on posture and respiratory function. Journal of
physical therapy science, 28(1), pp.186-189.
Woessner,
M.N., Tacey, A., Levinger-Limor, A., Parker, A.G., Levinger, P. and Levinger,
I., 2021. The evolution of technology and physical inactivity: the good, the
bad, and the way forward. Frontiers in public health, 9,
p.655491.
Rebar,
A.L., Alfrey, K.L. and Gardner, B., 2021. Theories of physical activity
motivation. Essentials of exercise and sport psychology: An open access
textbook, pp.15-36.
Siedlecki,
S.L., 2020. Understanding descriptive research designs and methods. Clinical
Nurse Specialist, 34(1), pp.8-12.
Newman,
I., 2015. A Conceptualization of Mixed Methods: A Need for Inductive/Deductive
Approach to Conducting Research.
Johhson,
E. and Sylvia, M.L., 2018. Secondary data collection. Critical
Analytics and Data Management for the DNP, p.61.
Terry,
G., Hayfield, N., Clarke, V. and Braun, V., 2017. Thematic analysis. The
SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology, 2(17-37),
p.25.
Winski,
T.A., Crawford, J.O., Graveling, R.A., Lansdown, T. and Walker, G., 2015. The
sources of risk to health associated with new technologies in the office
environment. In International Conference on Ergonomics and Human
Factors (pp. 299-304).
Eitivipart,
A.C., Viriyarojanakul, S. and Redhead, L., 2018. Musculoskeletal disorder and
pain associated with smartphone use: A systematic review of biomechanical
evidence. Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal, 38(02),
pp.77-90.
Anithakumari,
D., Gayathri, S. and Ramya, G., 2019. Effect of thechnology in sedentary
lifestyle and its impact on the overall well being of the employees in
Chennai. International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering, 8(2S8),
pp.1489-1494.
González,
K., Fuentes, J. and Márquez, J.L., 2017. Physical inactivity, sedentary
behavior and chronic diseases. Korean journal of family medicine, 38(3),
p.111.
Patwardhan,
A.G., Havey, R.M., Khayatzadeh, S., Muriuki, M.G., Voronov, L.I., Carandang,
G., Nguyen, N.L., Ghanayem, A.J., Schuit, D., Patel, A.A. and Smith, Z.A.,
2015. Postural consequences of cervical sagittal imbalance: a novel laboratory
model. Spine, 40(11), pp.783-792.
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