Download - Research methodology second draft
Name: Abdinasir Suleiman Osman
Matric No: 0833359
Title: The relationship between the usage of mobile phones and health problems among IIUM students
Research Methodology
The primary focus of this study that was conducted was to describe the ill-effects due
to the excessive use of the mobile phones. The research was completed and the survey
was conducted among the students of International Islamic University Malaysia and
wasn’t limited to any specific department. That makes my research slightly different than
previous researches from the aspect that my research concerns young people who use
mobile phones excessively. This research was conducted based on few materials
pertaining to mobile health issues by using various resources for references including
websites, articles, journals, and books. A detailed Questionnaire was developed and
aimed to investigate two effects or harms caused by mobile phones.
Participants
The participant for this survey is not limited to any specific department. A total number
of about 50 students were considered to answer this survey. This research was conducted
on the basis of quantitative approach as it is the best method to prove/disprove
hypothesis. This approach provides the fundamental connection between the empirical
observation and the mathematical expression of quantitative relationships.
Instruments
All of the questionnaires were given online. The questionnaire consisted of 2 parts
which have 12 questions. The questions were formed in different category such as yes-
no, multiple choice questions and scale. Different forms of category were used in order to
gather and obtain an appropriate data needed. The questionnaire was randomly
distributed among International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) engineering
students.
Procedures
All the questionnaires were conducted via online. The survey question was
created by using Google Docs and being shared through Facebook account since it was
the easiest way to approach the respondent. The purpose and objective of the research
were stated clearly in the survey form for respondents’ clarification. The respondents
only took less than 3 minutes to complete the survey form. The survey was conducted in
a two days due to small number of respondents needed.
Data Analysis
The results were automatically obtained from Google documents and also by
using the Microsoft excel by sketching graphs manually. To describe data, this survey
was used by bar charts, pie charts, and tables.
Data Analysis and Discussion
RESULTS:
The survey was conducted among IIUM students and a random population of 50
students was selected randomly from different departments. Among the respondents that
participated in the survey, 30% were male and 20% population were female. The first
part focused on the general information about the kulliyyah that the respondent belonged
to. Their age group and the time spent by the respondent on the average number of calls
(incoming/ outgoing) and the duration of the call (incoming/ outgoing) each day. This
part started by questioning about the department or the Kulliyah that the respondent
belonged to. Table 3 showed that 33% of the respondents belonged to kulliyah of
engineering, 33% belonged to kulliyah of Economics, 18% belonged to kulliyah of
Information and communication technology and 16% were from other kulliyah.
Table 1: percentage of the gender
The first question focuses
general background of the
respondents. For instance, their
gender group and 58% of the respondents were male while the rest of the 42% were
female.
Gender Number of respondents Percentage
Male 29 58%
Female 21 42%
Table 2: % age of respondents
% age of respondents
Less than 20
7 14%
20-25 34 69%
above 25 8 16%
The second question focused on the age group that the respondent belonged to. Table 2
showed that 69% of the respondents were between the age of 20-25, 14% were below 20
and 16% were above 25.
Table 3:kulliyah
Table 4: Level of study
Level of Study
Year of study No of respondents Percentage1 8 17%
2 6 13%
3 13 27%
4 21 44%
Table 5: average calls per day (Incoming/outgoing)
Kulliyah No. of respondentsEngineering
33%
KENMS
33%
ICT 18%
Others
16%
What is the average number of calls (incoming and outgoing) that you attend per day?average calls per day (Incoming/outgoing)
Duration of calls No of respondents Percentage
1-5 25 51%
5-10 16 33%
10-20 7 14%
more than 20 1 2%
The fifth question focused on the average number of calls (incoming/outgoing) that the
respondent attends each day. Table 5 shows that around 25 respondents attend 1-5 calls
per day, 16 respondents attend 5-10 calls per day, around approximately 7 respondents
attend 10-20 calls per day and one of the respondent’s (incoming/outgoing) exceeds
more than 20 each day.
Table 6:
What is the duration that a person spends daily on a certain call?
Duration of calls No of respondents PercentageLess than 10 minutes 2
553%
10-20 minutes 18
38%
greater than or equal to 20 minutes
4 9%
The 6th question of the survey focused on the effects of the radiation emitted by the
mobile phones. This question started by asking about the duration of the call that the
person spends daily. Table 6 showed that around 53% of people spend less than 10
minutes on a certain call, 38% of people spend an average of 10-20 minutes per day on a
certain call and only 9% of people spend an average of more than 20 minutes on a certain
call.
Table 7:
Do you feel pain after the long amount of time you spend talking on the cell phone?Yes 35 70%
No 15 30%
Table 8: type of the pain
What type of pain do you observe after you after using your mobile phone for a long period?
Type of pain No of responses PercentageHeadache 17 34%
No pain 12 24%
bad sleep & ear ache 8 16%
Dizziness 9 18%
redness on the ears & hair lose 4 8%
The type of pain is different from a respondent to another. Among the respondents the survey showed that 34% feel headache after using a mobile phone for a long period as shown below.
Table 9: different of pain caused by the mobile phones
Break d
own of blood brai
n barrier
Increase
d Risk
of eye
cancer
s
Increase
d Risk of E
ar tumors
Increase
d risk o
f other
cancer
s 05
1015202530
Number of responses
Number of responses
Do cell phones cause cancer?Break down of blood brain barrier
16
33%
Increased Risk of eye cancers 5 8%
Increased Risk of Ear tumors 27
55%
Increased risk of other cancers 2 4%
Table 10: The excessive usages of mobile phones in IIUM
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Number of resposes No of resposes
The excessive usages of mobile phones can cause healthy issues at IIUM students?
Strongly Dis agree 1 4%
Disagree 2 9%
Neutral 3 13%
Agree 5 22%
Strongly agree 12 52%
Most of the IIUM students’ were strongly agree that the prolonged usages of mobile
phones might cause health problems. More than 52% of the respondents were agree while
only 4% dis agreed the excessive usages of mobile phones might result on health
problems.
Table 11: the role of cell phones at IIUM students’
Strongly disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Number of responses
Number of responses
Cell phones has big role on the human healthy.
Strongly Disagree 4 9%
Disagree 2 4%
Neutral 6 13%
Agree 12 22%
Strongly agree 26 52%
The last question of the survey was asked the respondents to answer a short
question which was based on the main problems of mobile phones in terms of health and
most of them were responded that the major problems that caused by the usage of the
mobile phones hair loss, ear pain, cancer if the radiation is too strong, and headache after
speaking long time.
Moreover while doing this survey, I found that most of the students here are totally
aware about the harmful radiations emitted by their mobile phones that are harmful to
their health, so keeping this fact in view the research that I conducted was found useful
by the respondents.
DISCUSSION:
This survey was conducted to investigate the possible effects of mobile phone on
human health due to the extensive use of mobile phones which causes some health effects
from the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by these phones.
It has been revealed from the survey that out of 50 respondents that I interviewed about
4% of IIUM students spend about more than minutes per day for communication purpose
through the cell phone as shown in the table( 6) which is fairly large amount of duration
for communication through mobile phones. As a result, heavy mobile phone users are
usually exposed to the electromagnetic radiation and hence are engage with the higher
probability to suffer from some pains. Comparing this research with previous ones, this
research supports the hypothesis and findings of Kumar, Ahmad & Sharma (2010) who
discovered that when a person places a hand phone 15 cm close to his/her body for more
than 15 minutes, high frequency electromagnetic waves transmitted from the mobile
phone handsets penetrate inside the body, the electric field is induced inside the skin and
blood of the body. Due to this, it becomes harmful for his/her health. Figure and table (8)
show the overall health effects of the cell phone users in the long run. The diagram
determines that among the 50 respondents, there is 34% who claimed headache, 16% bad
sleep and earache, 18% dizziness, 8% redness on the ears & hair loss and 24% claimed
no effects on health. Many respondents felt that they do not feel any kind of pain even
though they use the mobile phone for hours it is because, the effects on health do not
appear during the use of mobile phones but it is for the long run. It is sad to hear that
users know about the positive side of mobile phone and ignore the negative side. The
precaution should be set as an important subject from the beginning, before it is too late.
Some experiments done on rabbits had shown that a few second of intense exposure of
radiofrequency is enough to kill the laboratory rabbits (Kane, 2007). All these
considerations have made the cell phones users more concerned towards the risk of health
troubles by exposing their body close to mobile phones. In short, it is definitely believed
that continuous use of mobile phones can endanger the users towards the risk of getting
brain tumour in the future.
Appendix