Qualitative Health Research Methods

Denzin and Lincoln describe qualitative research as the "study of things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them." Quantitative methods, on the other hand, focus on the collection and analysis of numerical data. Researchers increasingly apply qualitative methods to health topics as wide-ranging as family planning, tropical diseases, palliative care and pharmacist job satisfaction. These methods are especially used in public health and international development.

Reasons

• Among the many reasons health researchers select qualitative methods, Padgett names some of the most common: "exploring a topic about which little is known," "pursuing a topic of emotional depth and sensitivity," wishing to "capture the 'lived experience' from the perspectives of those who live it" and evaluating programs, especially identifying barriers to implementation and assessing effectiveness.

Observation

• Sometimes observation consists of simply noting the behaviors of people as they go about their lives in their natural setting (that is, not in a hospital), with few or no direct interactions with them and without much previous knowledge of that setting. On the other hand, the health researcher might be engaged in participant observation; this originated in the ethnographic, or scientifically descriptive, fieldwork of anthropologists. The participant observer both takes part in and observes the study community in its own contexts, attempting as an "outsider" to understand what it means to be an "insider."

Interviewing

• Qualitative interviewing techniques include semi-structured, in-depth, key informant, and focus group interviewing. With semistructured interviewing, the same set of open-ended questions is given to a sample of participants. In-depth interviews are "designed to elicit a vivid picture of the participant's perspective on the research topic." In-depth interviewees with particular expertise on the research topic beyond their own experiences and beliefs are called "key informants." Focus groups, which are called together by health researchers to discuss a particular topic, can yield qualitative insights into group dynamics.

Content Analysis

• Content analysis is a means of determining what words or concepts exist within a document or set of documents and assessing their interrelationships. While it is sometimes conducted quantitatively, health researchers routinely apply content analysis to data collected through qualitative observations and interviews, whether the data is the form of, for example, audio transcripts, video footage or field notes. Qualitative content analysis can also be productively applied to documents that were not specifically created for the health research project, such as case history files and public health education materials.

Mixed Methodology

• Mixed methodology is simply the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods in the same study. Often it yields more complete, richer findings than either kind of method alone.