Page 202 - Hospital Authority Convention 2018

Service Enhancement Presentations
HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2018

F5.2 Healthcare Advances, Research and Innovations 09:00 Room 421

Application of Explanatory Sequential Design in Reconciling Qualitative and Quantitative Findings of Social
Problem Solving in Substance Abuse Population
Lai FHY, Ho ECW, Tse PLC, Chiu FPF, Fan SHU, Tse TLY, Lee ATK, Tsui JWM, So BTY, Cheung JCC, Chan THM, Wong SKM
Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital, Hong Kong

Introduction
Substance abuse (SA) has been a problem with every society and across every generation. The increasing number of
substance abusers in Hong Kong causes a huge impact to our healthcare system. Evidence showed that SA impacted both
emotional and physical health (Yuen, 2001). With consideration in the complexity of psychosocial nature of this ever-growing
group of population, the utility of mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) has been increasingly accepted in health
sciences (Creswell & Zhang, 2009). Nevertheless, substance abuse studies are yet to substantially benefit from such clinical
research utilities (Castro, Kellison, Boyd & Kopak, 2010).

Objectives
This project is a local pioneer project in employing research with mixed methodologies for SA populations. The aim of this
study is to gain more comprehensive understanding of how social processes and individual behaviours shape SA behaviour.

Methodology
Explanatory sequential design was employed to analyse 20 SA subjects. The first step is to collect quantitative data.
Treatment Needs and Motivation Assessment (Texas Christian University, 2008) was used to examine their ability in problem
recognition, desire in getting help, treatment readiness and their specific treatment needs. Drug Involvement Scale – DIS (Lam,
Ng & Boey, 2002) was used to assess their problematic beliefs and values. To note for social problem tendency, the Chinese
Social Problem Solving Inventory (Siu & Shek, 2005) was adopted to assess their orientation in social problem solving. The
second step is to collect qualitative data, in which, the impact of social influence, peer influence and family influence were
explored through individual semi-structure interview sessions,dby free-listing and pile sorts activities in qualitative focus
groups. The final step is to interpret findings from these two subsets of quantitative and qualitative data.

Results
To assess treatment motivation and relapse correlates, multivariate regressions was employed. Correlation and regression
analysis showed that significant effects of duration of SA, treatment needs and motivation, positive problem orientation
of all SA subjects (‐=.33, p < .05). To identify explanatory model of SA, grounded theory was employed. Alike the findings
from Simpson & Joe (1993), motivation for treatment like problem recognition, desire for help and treatment readiness, is
closely tied to positive problem orientation (r=.68, p<.01). Moreover, acknowledgement of personal and social problems (e.g.,
depression, anxiety, hostility, risk taking) is negatively correlating with stimulant relapsing (r=-.32, p<.05). To identify social
meaning of SA, discourse analysis was used in qualitative findings. Stress from work / study yielded the most negative social
problem solving orientation (p < .05) . Half of recruited subjects in the proximity matrix showed stress from peers is the most
prominent single stressor, which yields similar findings as the combination of cross-product of stress from family and from
work / study (p > .05). Results rectified social problem was one of the most prominent factors of substance abusers. With
Tuesday, 8 May 2018 particular attention to bridgethe service gap between Hospital Authority and the community.
consideration of specificity in individual characteristics, different problem solving strategies should be tailored for different
social stressors. After identifying individuals’ specific needs, it is important to determine appropriateness for treatment with

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