Thesis Sample

MEDICAL MYTHS AND QUACK PRACTICES AT BARANGAY MALAININ, SAN ROQUE, NAIC, CAVITE AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON THE HEALTH CARE PROCESS

A Thesis

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing

October 2007 Chapter 1 The Problem and its Background

Introduction Complementary and alternative medicines, including medical myths and quack practices fundamentally rooted on the medical systems and techniques of ancient people such as Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Asian Indians ad Native Americans. Contemporary biomedical research has tended to be skeptical and sometimes contemptuous of these alternative, non-allopathic methods of medical practices. Yet medical myths and quack practices has historically contributed for many people's sense of health and well-being over the centuries and still does in many countries, most notably, Philippines. The Philippines is one of the many Asian countries with many beliefs, cultural practices, and traditions. Part of the beliefs is the existence of medicinal myths and quack practices. According to (2000) medical myths and quack practices in medicines are considered as familiar objects in the nation. Specifically, the Philippine comprises different communities which have different medical myths and quack practices. Primarily, the main goal of this research is to identify various medical myths and quack practices in one of the community or barangay in Cavite, specifically the study will be conducted in Barangay Malainin, San Roque, Naic Cavite. Furthermore, the study will also determine the influence of medical myths and quack practices in the health care process. It is possible both to keep an open mind about "traditional" medicinal belief and quack practices while at the same time taking care scientifically to evaluate its efficacy. In many countries somewhere 30% to 40% of people turn to believe in medical myths and quack practices. This fact says something important about a lack of faith in now-established scientific medicine— as well as an eagerness to find more satisfying modes of treatment and care than are provided by mainline Western models of health care. It signals a need to attend to what alternative medicine offers patients. A focus on the mind-body relationship, elusive yet central to human nature, is appropriately a research subject for both scientific medicine and medical myths and quack practices (1999). With time constraints dictated by managed care initiatives, client demands, and movement toward brief therapy, growing number individuals seek the help of people who perform quack practices or aid their sickness through medical myths. The medical practices today typically denotes a technique regarded by Western medicine as scientifically tenuous or used as an adjunct to more orthodox medical methods (1997). Much of the philosophy behind this scientific medical practicesis drawn from Ayurvedic or Eastern Indian medicine, curandismo or cuentas, Native American Shamanism, and Far Eastern philosophies (1998). The shared link among these medical modalities is the holistic approach to physical and mental wellness: that mind, body, and spirit are interconnected and wellness depends on equilibrium between these three components ( 1997). According to some studies, medical myths and quack practices is a broad domain of healing resources that encompasses all health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical perspective. Medical myths and quack practices include all such practices and ideas self-defined by their users as preventing or treating illness or promoting health and well-being. The main context of medical myths and quack practices is to relieve pain, postpone death, and make money. Most people will do everything to prolong the life of their loved ones or to relieve the suffering of disease. With this goal in mind, some will try to do almost anything in order to exploit such desire by selling what practitioners claim as life prolonging nostrums and pain-killing remedies. The provision of sufficient healthcare is an important aspect of human life not only in the prevention and treatment of diseases but also in the maintenance of good health. Among developing countries, certain facilities and institutions are built in order to deliver health care services; this is the primary effort of nations belonging to the third world category so as to access various healthcare services. However, the healthcare aspect has long been vulnerable to the issue of inequality. People subjected to poverty tend to suffer higher instance of mortality and morbidity as compared to those living affluently, particularly in developed countries (2001). With this inequality, those poor individuals may choose not to seek medical care from healthcare providers and prefers to believe in some medical myths and quack practices in their town. With the economy of the Philippines, many families are poor; thus, the thought of going to a hospital will be costly and expensive. On one hand, not all people seeking the help of quack doctors and believing in medical myth are not poor, there are those people who have lose their faith in medical practices from expensive hospitals, thus seeking the help of quack doctors with the hope that the ill-person will be free form the disease or sickness.

As mentioned, medical myths and quack practices are prevalence in many communities or barangay in the Philippines. However, fewer studies have been made to evaluate these medical practices. With this, the researcher chose this topic to help the country in analysing the value of medical myths and quack practices and the factors that drives people to seek the help of this kind of medical practitioners. This research study tends to provide a critical analysis regarding the influenced and effects of medical myths and quack practices in the health care process within the chosen community.

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework The researcher theorises that medical myths and quack practices affect health care process in barangay Malainin. It is said that if we conceptualise that the provision of health care among the people in the barangay is being affected by their belief in medical myths and quack practice. The experience of illness and healing is shaped by cultural, social, political, and moral components. As the 21st century approaches, several social trends have coalesced that enhance the popularity of medical myths and quack practices, in spite of (and to some degree, because of) its rejection by mainstream science. Today’s resurgence of medical myths and quack practices be traced, in part, to nostalgic holdovers from the neo-romantic search for simplicity and spirituality that permeated the “counterculture” that attracted so many youthful converts during the 1960’s and’70’s. Medical myths and quack practices also resonates with that era’s mix of iconoclasm, reliance on feeling over reason, mistrust of science, and promotion of consumer advocacy.

The investigation used the concept ‘community participation’ to underpin it, as the activities undertaken by the communities in organising their general practices can be described as community participation. This is describe as a process involving a range of activities undertaken either collectively or individually by local people to address a health problem or issue like medical myths and quack practices. The concept includes actions community members take not only in health care provision but also in developing health services. The

body of work includes theory and concepts about the

approaches to community participation generally and in health development specifically. Many of the approaches to health promotion and primary health care have community participation as a core element. The conceptual framework used to underpin this investigation includes theory and concepts from community sociology, community development, and rural development. This enables a fuller understanding of the communities that participated and the reasons for their participation, and provides the basis for suggesting ways to strengthen participation. To understand ‘community’ social field theory ( 1959; 1970) and community interaction theory ( 1991) was used. The Interactional perspective identifies three elements that are fundamental in defining and understanding a community. These elements are a locality, a local society, and a process of locality-orientated collective actions (1991). The first element a ‘locality’, or ‘community of place’, or a local ecology, is used to describe a commonly understood geographic area in which people interact. The second element a ‘local society’ is a comprehensive network of associations for meeting common needs and expressing common interests. The third element, and the most important according to this theoretical perspective, is the social interactions that occur in the locality (1998). The term ‘community field’ describes locality-oriented collective actions bringing people together across the community to find common ground, express common concerns, or to develop solutions to community issues, in this case, medical myths and quack practices.

Statement of the Problem The study aims to determine the medical myths and quack practices in Barangay Malainin, San Roque, Naic Cavite and their implication on the health care process within the barangay. Specifically, this study sought to answer the following subproblems.

To determine the specific medical myths and quack practices exercise in the barangay; To determine the factors that pushes people to believe in medical myths and seek the help of quack doctors for their illness; To determine how medical myths and quack practices affects health care process in the community; and To provide pertinent conclusion and recommendation that adheres to the objective of the study.

Hypothesis of the Study This study will work on the following hypothesis:

“There is no significant difference among the perception of the respondents when they are grouped according to profile.”

Significance of the Study Research is the best way to find solutions to medical issues and problems and to set standards for medical practice. The issues that have been observed in the belief of medical myths and quack practices in different communities in the Philippines led the researcher to conceptualize a study that will answer the curiosity in identifying how these contexts affects health care process. The results of this study will therefore, benefit the following sectors; Residents- Additional knowledge will be gained when they are presented with information about the fallacies and misconceptions about medical myths and quack practices. Medical Education- Medical schools will be able to incorporate results of this study into their medical practice curriculum to inform future health care providers to understand how medical myths and quack practices affects or implicates healthcare process. Community- the community will be benefited in a way that they will be informed about the disadvantages of believing in medical myths. In addition, the community may gain knowledge about the importance of seeking the help of medical practitioners than quack doctors. Nurses- Nurses will be benefited in a way that they will be able to understand how medical myths and quack practices misjudgement can implicate the provision of healthcare process in there areas of responsibilities.

Scope and Limitation As mentioned, the main objective of this study is to determine the implication of medical myths and quack practices in health care process in Barangay Malainin, San Roque, Naic Cavite. The discussion of this research will mainly focus on determination of medical myths and quack practices in the said barangay and how this affects the provision of health care process in the community. The information that will be gathered for this study will be derived mainly from the secondary sources from journals and articles about medical myths and quack practices and also about standard health care process. The primary data on the other hand will be derived from the interview and survey questionnaire prepared by the researchers, and distributed to the selected sample.

Time will be the greatest limitation to this research, which may hinder long-term outcome objectives. Environmental factors, such as socioeconomic factors, are beyond the control of the researcher and can create many variables within the research. As this study will be utilizing a small sample of participants, the results may not effectively represent the general population.

Definition of Operational terms The following are the definition of some operational terms: Nurse: Registered professionals who provide holistic care and assistance to patients. Healthcare Provider: registered professional who devote themselves in providing healthcare services to patients. Quackery- is a derogatory term used to describe questionable medical practices.

Quack- considered a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or qualifications he or she does not possess Medical Myth- A medical myth is defined as a false or distorted belief regarding issues of health within a family or a community.

Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature and Studies

The study aims on identifying the medical myths and quack practices in the chosen barangay and to know its implications with health care process. In this regard, it is necessary to study related literatures which tackle medical myths and quack practice and health care process both from the foreign and local settings. This part of the research will provide insightful details about healthcare process, the context of medical myths and quack practices in the Philippines and other countries and its implications to health care process.

Foreign Studies Health care process as a discipline is concentrated on the provision of assistance to individuals, families and communities in order to obtain, recover and maintain optimal health status and normal body functioning. Contemporary definitions of medical profession as a science and art, which is concentrated on quality life as understood by people and families. Thus, health care process is not solely focused on health recovery and care but also with the provision of quality living as well. Health care is the process of caring for, or nurturing, for an individual known as the patient. More specifically, health care process refers to the functions and duties carried out by persons who have had formal education and training in the art and science of health care. To promote the restoration and maintenance of health in their clients, healthcare practitioners became more particular in enhancing their knowledge through integrating with health and biological sciences (1993). The provision of holistic care for other people as well as the utilization of various complementary healing modalities is the foundation of the health care process. Health care practitioners recognize that the responsibilities and obligations of nurses is an essential part of the healthcare community. The authority for health care practice is fundamentally based upon a social

contract and agreement that described and explains the professional rights as well as mechanisms for public accountability. Health organization refers to health care process as the diagnosis and treatment of human reactions and responses to potential or actual health problems and dilemmas. Just like medical diagnoses that aim in helping in planning, execution or implementation and assessment of medical care, the role of the health care practitioner is to provide help in the planning, implementation and evaluation of healthcare (1997). There are certain factors in which health care practice are being influenced or affected. These include the notion of alternative therapies. Alternative medicine is often defined by the modalities that it encompasses. Additionally it may be seen as denoting a group of theories that share certain central philosophical tenets that fall broadly into the category of holism. However it is delineated, complementary, and alternative medicines is a broad and inclusive church. Indeed, alternative medicine is such a diverse field that even naming it presents challenges. Alternative medicines, including medical myths and quack practices is now known as a collection of different therapies and healing approaches which believe in the energy of the body and the idea of a harmony and synchronization between the mind, body and spirit. Nowadays, people think that these therapies are an “unorthodox” alongside of the clinically proven, tested and evidenced-based orthodox medicine, but in most part of the world, these complementary and alternative medicines has continue to become the dominant form of medical practice (2003).

Local Studies In the Philippines, the conventional medicines and Western curative methods herbal medicines as part of health related practices had been widely used. The curative effects of these traditional medicines were tested by traditional healers who practices quackery on their patient on try-and-error basis. The skills and knowledge on the curative application of any quack practices and medical myths in the country has been handed down fro generation to generation. Aside from prescribing herbs as curative medicines (2007), the conventional healers were known to give moral support and psychological comfort to their patients. The medical myths and quack practices in the county were well respected and enjoy high social status among the Filipinos. Through generations of selective process, the medical myths and quack practices that were known to be effective and efficient in curing diseases were kept alive. However, the ineffective one was soon forgotten. When Western medical practice, specifically drugs just started to be used in the Philippines, the Filipinos find these as too expensive but also too scarce. Hence, the rural folks and as well as the poor people continued to rely on medical myths and quack practices including herbal medicines which are affordable, abundance, locally available. The western-style medical care has reached a very restricted Filipinos, mostly in urban cities. Medical myths and quack practices have become legacy of the history of a certain community and the number of users is fast dwindling. Public and private Hospitals that have sprouted up in the rural areas, provinces and later in the barangays have in no small part contributed to the dying art of traditional healing for some regions. Despite the Public Health Ministry's dynamic campaigns to make available medical services in these regions, the services are still considered far' from adequate and sufficient today. It is uncertain if the modern medical services will ever be sufficient given the limited resources and trained man-power of the Philippine health organization. The provision of expanding medical services throughout the Philippines has been doggedly followed for several years to the manner that authorities began questioning the necessity of some barangay hospitals considered too close to larger provincial facilities. Those people who are unable to obtain medical services from government hospitals resort to quack practices and drugs without prescriptions or proper advice. The health issue have been compounded as an outcome of the misguided consumption of modern and western drugs.

Foreign Studies The health belief system about ailments and illnesses are conceptualised as being myth-like in lieu of explaining the cure and etiology for many human diseases. There are many studies which examined the role played by medical myths and quack practices, alternative medicines and the likes. In one study, they have found that health belief approaches are organised in three orthogonal aspects. These include salves for maladies, scientific explanations of disease, and sorcerybased explanations of illness. These studies have used gender, ethnicity, and other sociodemographic variables as

predictors of acceptance for explaining the cause of diseases, advocating steps to cure ailments, and/or simply treating illness as some sort of spiritual intervention. In these studies, analyses of the probable acceptance of scientific evidence refuting folk wisdom are also examined. According to a conducted nationwide study (1993), in 1990 there is an approximately one third of the adult population of the United States of America who used at least one unconventional medical approach to treat illness. As noted in the study, extrapolating the per visit costs solely of supervised health care, the annual expense is likely to approach $14 billion a year in this country. Approximately one in four individuals who sees a medical doctor for a serious illness may be using one of quack practice and believes in medical myth: yet over 70% of those individuals do not tell their medical doctor--a statistic that should alarm health care professionals including practicing pharmacists and allopathic physicians. The research concluded that medical myths, quack practices affect the health and economy of this country. An extensive medical anthropology documents has created a rich ethnographic map of culture-specific, conventional health beliefs and practices (1991). Beginning with Rivers "Medicine, Magic, and Religion" (1927) to more recent documents, articles, books, and essays found in the volumes of Medical Anthropology and Social Science and Medicine, research scholars provide fascinating insights into different health-related belief contexts ( 1990;1992). For instance, (1989) investigated professional and popular/traditional medical cultures, myths with Latin Americans. (1989) studied Asian refugees resettled in the United States to identify adaptation to Western medical practices. (1987) provided a review of literature of Spanish-American folk medical myths and theory as practiced in the Greater Southwest, an area they defined as northwest Mexico and southwest United States. Medical myths and quack practices are perhaps most recognized by their lack of acceptance by conventional Western medical practice. Because of this, most of the healthcare providers do not typically recommend or impose the use of these medicines (2004). Since only few of the healthcare providers are accepting the conventional medical practice, the occurrence of empirical studies are very minimal; hence, s mall number of data exist in line medical myths and quack practices (2000). However, even though medical myths and quack practices are lacking of acceptance and testing by professional healthcare providers, more patients are buying and spending more on utilizing medical myths and quack practices that ever before. In the study made by Eisenberg and his colleagues in 1998, the research discovered that 42% of American adults used complementary and alternative therapies, which reflects an increase from 34 % of adults in 1993 ( 1998). Medical myths and quack practices are terms often used synonymously. Technically, alternative medical therapies imply the use of treatments in place of mainstream medicine (2000) while complementary medical therapies imply the use of treatments that are used along with more conventional medical approaches. Both of these groups represent a large range of therapies outside the arena of conventional Western medicine. Because a universally agreed upon classification of the various therapies as either alternative or complementary medicine does not exist, both terms will be used in this article to describe this collection of medical therapies. In 1997, 42 percent of the American adult population made 629 million visits to alternative health care practitioners and spent $27 billion out-of-pocket for these services (1998). It has been estimated that in the year 2000, Americans will spend $60 billion on complementary and alternative medical therapies (2000). This represents over a 47% increase since 1990 in total visits to alternative medical practitioners (Eisenberg et al, 1993). This increasing demand for and purchase of alternative and complementary medical therapies by health care consumers has been fuelled, in part, by support from some in conventional medicine. For example, a 1994 survey of physicians found that more than 60% of the physicians surveyed recommended alternative therapies to their patients and 23% reported incorporating these therapies into their own practices (Borkan et al, 1994). Contrary to common opinion in the health care arena, the majority of alternative medicine users do so not because they are dissatisfied with conventional medicine, medical myths, and quack practices but mainly because these therapies fit their own values and philosophies regarding health and life ( 1998). Patients choose medical myths and quack practices based on their abilities to judge the credibility of information presented by the mass media. The public seldom conducts literature searches of medical journals. The mass media, family, and friends provide patients with lay information from television talk shows, local newspapers, magazines, television, and by word of mouth testimonials regarding these therapies (1998). Often patients are desperate to improve their health and/or quality of life, accuracy of clinical information often takes a backseat to the quest for improved health. As the public increases its use of medical myths and quack practices, it becomes necessary for accurate sources of information on these topics to be readily available to the public. One of the largest groups of health professionals that are in regular contact with the public are nurses, and it seems logical to have nurses take a significant role in assisting patients in making informed decisions regarding alternative and complementary medical therapies. To do so, nurses will need to become well informed regarding the efficacy and safety of alternative and complementary medical therapies. As the evidence increases, so should the awareness and recommended use among traditional health care providers, including nurses.

A comprehensive review of the nursing literature found few articles specifically exploring nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and use of medical myths and quack practices (1998; 1999; 2000). All of the studies consisted of small local samples [less than 100 nurses], and surveyed specialty areas such as oncology ( 1998; 1999) or certified nurse-midwives (2000). In the study made by (2001) entitled “Nurses’ Perception of Complementary and Alternative Medical Therapies”, using a random sample of 1000 nurses from American Nurses Association (ANA) they have found out that the vast majority (79%) of nurses perceived their professional preparation in the area of medical myths and quack practices to be fair and poor. In addition, the study found out that 1 in 4 nurses obtained their information on complementary and alternative therapies from their coursework. Recently, nurses have recommended the inclusion of medical myths and quack practices in the baccalaureate curriculum for nursing preparation ( 2001). Perceived effectiveness of these therapies varied from a high of 51% for biofeedback, chiropractic care, and meditation/relaxation, to a low of 5 percent for macrobiotic diets and 7% for body cleansing diets. It appears as though the nurses who responded were more likely to believe in more familiar and possibly more traditional alternative and complementary medical therapies (e.g., biofeedback and chiropractic care). This may be due to the lack of formal training in this area and as such, the respondents were likely to be more aware of widely used therapies such as biofeedback and chiropractic care ( 2001). In this study also, the nurses believed that therapies that were external (e.g., chiropractic care, acupressure, healing touch, etc.) as safest. In regards to use of medical myths and quack practices, the majority of nurses did not personally use any of the therapies. Almost one-third of the respondents used three therapies. These same three therapies (multivitamins, massage, and meditation/relaxation) were also among the therapies most often recommended to others (2001). It can be said that nursing and health care practice can use holistic nursing therapies which can be determines as complementary in nature. Study shows that medical myths and quack practices therapies can be considered as one of the best intervention inline with health care practice and do not exist to replace the traditional medical or nursing therapies. In this manner, when the complementary and alternative medical therapies are being offered, there are needs and demands that should be considered and this include the positive and negative consequences that may be faced from all the appropriate therapeutic choices available for the patients. Herein, nurses can facilitate the combination of complementary, alternative, and traditional therapies for an effective and efficient patient health plan (1998).

Synthesis This review of related literature and studies discussed different studies made about the medical myths and quack practices in both foreign and local settings. In the given studies it can be noted that the medical myths and practices are not only prevalence in the Philippines but also in other regions in the World. The literature also gave us some important details on how the provision of health care process in different areas was being affected by the medical myths and quack practices in their area. It also indicates some important issues on how medical myths and quack practices are being used in the Philippines and the factors that pushes the people to believe in medical myths and quack practices. Chapter 3 Research Design and Methodology

The study aims on identifying the medical myths and quack practices and its implications to health care process. Referring to the aim and objectives set for the dissertation, the author will now demonstrate the methodology of the means of obtaining data for analysis and coming to the conclusion to meet the aim and objectives. Though it does show ethnic concerns to those out there, survey-questionnaires will be tied with the primary data research collection of this study and the secondary research will be supported through the use of the research of other scholars as mentioned in the literature review.

Research Design

This study uses the descriptive approach. This descriptive type of research will utilize observations in the study. To illustrate the descriptive type of research, (1994) will guide the researcher when he stated: “Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena.” The research described in this document is based on qualitative and quantitative method. The qualitative method permits a flexible and iterative approach, while the quantitative research method permits specification of dependent and independent variables and allows for longitudinal measures of subsequent performance of the research subject. During data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This allows investigation of important new issues and questions as they arise, and allows the investigators to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan.

Locale of the Study Barangay Malainin is one of the barangays in San Roque, Naic Cavite which has a total population of approximately 815 families or 5000 individuals as of 2005. The barangay has a clinic near the municipal hall and there is also a public hospital in the town of Naic. The member of each family in the barangay ranges from 4-8 individuals including the parents and their children.

Respondents of the Study To ensure that only pertinent data will be gathered, the researcher opted to have respondents in Barangay Malainin, San Roque Naic Cavite. These participants must be 20 years old and above. 100 residents will be used in determining the influence of medical myths and quack practices in health care process in the barangay.

Research Instrument The researchers design a questionnaire for the survey. The primary aim of the questionnaire is to determine the impact of medical myths and quack practices in health care process in Barangay Malainin. This research uses a mixture of closed questions and more open comments in the questionnaire. A closed question is one that has pre-coded answers. The simplest is the dichotomous question to which the respondent must answer yes or no. Through closed questions, the researcher will be able to limit responses that are within the scope of this study. For example, the researcher intends to ask the respondents what they think of medical myths and quack practices in general. Using a multiple choice method, the answer of the respondents would be within one of the limited expected answers of the researcher. Thus the researcher design a closed question type to remain focused on the statement of the problem and on the main purpose of the study. However, the researcher nevertheless extends the closed questions with the comments option to be able to gather qualitative data for this study. In addition, closed questions were used in the survey because the answers are easy to analyse and are straightforward as target respondents are mostly busy that they do not have enough time to give attention to open questions. Closed response questions save the respondent having to think of possible replies. Two sets of questionnaire will be used in this study. The first set is a survey-questionnaire that used to gather data from 50 respondents in barangay Malainin and the other questionnaire was used to know the perception of barangay healthcare officials in the area. Each of the questionnaires consists only ten questions in order to make sure that the respondents answer all the given questions.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researchers collected the data from residents of Barangay Malainin, San Roque, Naic Cavite. Both the inclusion and exclusion criteria for respondent’s selection were adopted from the source. As mentioned, residents age 20 and above will be included in the study. In addition, 10 barangay health care providers will be chosen to get their perception about medical myths and quack practices. The questionnaire-survey will collect data on the respondents’ demographic profile first to check that the sample is appropriately stratified and representative and second to provide further information about the sample for analysis purposes. The researcher opted to use the questionnaire as a tool since it is easy to construct having the rules and principles of construction which are easy to follow. Moreover, copies of the questionnaire could reach a considerable number of respondents either by mail or by personal distribution. Generally, responses to a questionnaire are objectified and standardised and these make tabulation easy. But more importantly, the respondents’ replies are of their own free will because there is no interviewer to influence them. This is one way to avoid biases, particularly the interviewers’ bias. The researcher will also use graph and charts for data presentation.

Statistical Tools Residents of Barangay Malainin and barangay health care providers who passed the entire inclusion and exclusion criterion were politely asked to answer the survey-questionnaire after giving their permission. After all the data from the researcher-made questionnaire were collected, the following statistical formulae were used:

1.

Percentage – to determine the magnitude of the responses to the questionnaire. n

% = -------- x 100 N 2.

;

n – number of responses N – total number of respondents

Weighted Mean f1x1 + f2x2 + f3x3 + f4x4 + f5x5

x = --------------------------------------------- ; xt where:

f – weight given to each response

x – number of responses xt – total number of responses 3. Chi-Square The researchers used the Chi-Square to test the hypothesis of the research. A chi-square test is any statistical hypothesis test in which the test statistic has a chi-square distribution when the null hypothesis is true, or any in which the probability distribution of the test statistic (assuming the null hypothesis is true) can be made to approximate a chi-square distribution as closely as desired by making the sample size large enough. Specifically, a chi-square test for independence evaluates statistically significant differences between proportions for two or more groups in a data set. The researcher is assisted by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) in coming up with the statistical analysis for this study. SPSS is one of the most widely available and powerful statistical software packages that covers a broad range of statistical procedures, which allows a researcher to summarize data (e.g., compute means and standard deviations), determine whether there are significant differences between groups (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA), examine relationships among variables (e.g., correlation, multiple regression), and graph results (e.g., bar charts, line graphs) ( 2003).

Chapter 4 Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

This study aims on identifying the medical myths and quack practices in Barangay Malainin and its implications on the provision of health care process in the community. This chapter discusses the results of the survey questionnaires given to the 100 chosen respondents. Prior to the initiation of the survey process, the purpose, the importance, and objectives of the study were relayed to the chosen respondents. They were also assured that all the information they had provided are solely for the purpose of the study while their identities would remain confidential. All questions asked in the survey questionnaire pertain only to the respondents’ insights on the regarding identification of medical myths and quack practices in the barangay. For a clearer presentation, the findings of the survey are presented in graphs and tables. To give an appropriate flow of discussion, findings are also divided into sections. Section one gives a summary of the demographic profile of the participants used in the study. This profile was categorised according to the respondents’ age, gender, educational background, and place of residence. The discussion of the perception of the chosen residents in Barangay who took part in the study about identification of the medical myths and quack practices and its implication to health care process will be discussed in the next section. The third section will discuss the view the result of the chi-square method to test the null hypothesis.

Part 1 Demographic Profile of the respondents This part will discuss the demographic profile of 100 individuals who answered the survey questionnaire sent by the research. The description of the respondents includes their age, gender, civil status, educational attainment, occupation, and monthly income.

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