Free Essay on Spanish Flu: The Worst Pandemic Of The Twentieth Century

Introduction

Towards the end of the Second World War, an infectious disease by the name Spanish flu emerged and spread fast across Europe and other parts of the world. According to (Burkle, 2020) the Spanish Flu lasted for two years, between 1918 and 1920, infected more than a quarter of the world’s population, and killed between thirty million to a hundred million deaths. Spanish Flu killed more people than the two world wars combined and earned its position as the worst pandemic of the twentieth century. The Flu raised global awareness on infectious diseases leading to the improvement of global health systems. More than a century later, no global pandemic has caused more fatalities compared to the Spanish Flu. The development of health systems has reduced the impacts of infectious diseases on public health. However, (Lessler & Cummings, 2016) shows despite being less deadly compared to the Spanish Flu, infectious diseases still pose a significant threat to public health. Infectious disease that has caused great concern on public health include Dengue, Zika, Ebora, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS), Influenza, and COVID-19, among others. (Burkle, 2020) shows that understanding of the implications of infectious diseases on public health helps in creating awareness and reducing the fatalities from the conditions. Research on the impacts of infectious diseases on public health may help in preventing the destructive effects of the pandemic.

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Research Questions

The research aims to answer the following questions:

1. Do infectious diseases threaten public health?
2. Does public sensitization reduce the spread of infectious diseases?
3. Does the understanding of the impacts of infectious diseases reduce their effects on public health?

Research Method

This research will a quantitative research method. According to (Park & Park, 2016), the quantitative research method is more objective and allows testing of the statistical relationship between research variables. Although quantitative research does not allow in-depth analysis as in the case of qualitative research, it is less subjective and takes a little time. The quantitative research will enable the researcher to statistically determine the relationship between infectious diseases, public awareness of the conditions, and the impacts of infectious diseases on public health. The results will be obtained from the statistical analysis and the establishment of the correlations between the research parameters to establish the relationships between them. The research sample will be achieved through a multi-sampling method. The researcher will select a region that has been affected by more than one infectious disease and the required samples obtained through random sampling across the social strata within the area.

Threats to Validity

Threats to the validity of the research design reduce the accuracy of the research results hence compromising their replication. (Flannelly et al., 2018) shows that these threats either jeopardize the internal or the external validity of the data. Internal validity refers to whether the experimental condition/treatment changes the outcome and whether there is enough proof to support the claim. The external validity alludes to whether the results of the condition or the procedure can be generalized across different settings. Some of the factors that compromise the internal validity of the research include the history, maturity, testing, instrumentation, statistical regression, selection of the subjects, experimental mortality, and the selection-maturation interaction among others. According to (Linden, 2017), maturation affects the internal validity of research in that when the experiments take a long time, some subjects of the study may improve their performance regardless of the treatment. The change of instruments in the course of the research may also change the outcomes of the investigation, hence reducing its generalization. (Flannelly et al., 2018) show that the factors that affect the external validity of research include interactive or reactive effects of testing, responsive impacts of the study arrangements, multiple treatment interference, interaction influences of experimental variables, and selection bias.

Strategies to Minimize Threats to the Validity

To minimize the threats to the validity of research, (Flannelly et al., 2018) show that experiments should take the shortest time possible to reduce the effects of history and maturation on the internal validity of the research. The instruments used should also be consistent with enhancing the generalization of the data. Moreover, researchers should avoid using pretesting results as secondary outcomes to minimize the threats posed by testing errors. According to (Linden, 2017), care should be taken when selecting subjects of the research to reduce experimental bias. Also, the study should be done within a reasonable time to avoid mortality of experiments which reduces the internal validity of the research.

Project Plan

The research will take three months. Primary data will be collected through interviews and observations, while secondary data will be collected from healthcare websites and other electronic and written sources. The data will be analyzed quantitatively to find the relationships between the research variables. To reduce the threats to the research validity, the study will use a random sample to reduce bias. The study will also use consistent instruments to enhance the generalization of the results.

References

Burkle, F. M. (2020). Declining public health protections within autocratic regimes: impact on global public health security, infectious disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 35(3), 237-246.

Flannelly, K. J., Flannelly, L. T., & Jankowski, K. R. (2018). Threats to the internal validity of experimental and quasi-experimental research in healthcare. Journal of health care chaplaincy, 24(3), 107-130.

Lessler, J., & Cummings, D. A. (2016). Mechanistic models of infectious disease and their impact on public health. American journal of epidemiology, 183(5), 415-422.

Linden, A. (2017). Persistent threats to validity in singlegroup interrupted time series analysis with a cross-over design. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 23(2), 419-425.

Park, J., & Park, M. (2016). Qualitative versus quantitative research methods: Discovery or justification? Journal of Marketing Thought, 3(1), 1-8.