Week 2: Interviews Part 1

Hello everyone! This is the one and only Joleen, and I am back with another blog post! Today, I will discuss my interviews and the steps I used to gather my data for this project! 

As I mentioned last week, my external advisor and I designed a series of questions to ask our participants. I will interview all my participants this week and next week using these questions. Before the interview begins, I have my participants fill in the confidentiality and IRB approval documents according to the research protocol. If they have any questions regarding my research process or data privacy, I explain to them in concrete detail. Next, I begin recording information about the meeting, such as the date, participant name, and interview time. Then, I took the participants’ blood pressure and gave them a form to fill out. These forms include information such as name, email, and date of birth. These data points are crucial to ensure that I can communicate with all participants and that they meet the age requirements of my project. Finally, I reminded all participants to practice Qigong consistently five days a week and schedule a second interview with me four weeks later.

And that’s the interview process! Many people ask me what the blood pressure machine numbers mean, so let’s look into that. The top number is the systolic blood pressure, which measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats. In other words, it is the maximum blood pressure when the organ ventricles contract. The bottom number is the diastolic blood pressure, which represents the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats. It measures the arteries’ resistance to stretch when the heart relaxes. Many outside factors can impact your blood pressure temporarily or permanently, such as stress levels, smoking or drinking, and eating diets low in potassium or sodium. Blood pressure is written in the form of systolic/diastolic and normal blood pressure should be below 120/80. Check out the first chart in this link to learn more: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/understanding-blood-pressure-readings  

Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/prevent_manage.htm