Appraising Qualitative Research

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Appraising Qualitative Research 23rd January 2007
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Qualitative versus Quantitative
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Qualitative evaluation

• Explorative
• Methodology
• Sampling - purposive
• Data collection focus groups, semi-structured
  interviews, observations, documentation
  (triangulation) verbatim notes,transcribed
  recordings
• Analysis inductive reasoning grounded theory or
  priori thematic identifying themes
  (saturation) coding content analysis iterative
  to explore in further depth
• Time consuming
• Now a number of softwear packages (QSR NUDIST
  and ATLAS.ti.) systematic not necessarily less
  time consuming, should not encourage increased
  data

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Validity

• Appropriateness of sampling and setting
• Triangulation
• Researcher bias explained
• Multiple coding
• Respondant validation
• Attention to contradicting data
• Reflexivity how does the process influence the
  data
• Credibility of conclusions

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References

• How to read a paper. The basics of evidence based
  medicine. Trisha Greenhalgh
• Qualitative research in health care
• Assessing quality in qualitative research
• BMJ Vol 320 1 January 2000
• Qualitative research in health care
• Analysing qualitative data
• BMJ Vol 320 8 January 2000
• Checklist for improving rigour in qualitative
  research a case of he tail wagging the dog?
• BMJ Vol 322 5 May 2001

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Appraisal Framework

• Question 1 Did the paper describe an important
  clinical problem addressed via a clearly
  formulated question?
• Question 2 Was a qualitative approach
  appropriate?
• Question 3 How were (a) the setting and (b) the
  subjects selected?
• Question 4 What was the researchers perspective
  and has this been taken into account?
• Question 5 What methods did the researcher use
  for collecting data and are these described in
  enough detail?

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Appraisal Framework

• Question 6 What methods did the researcher use
  to analyse the data and what quality control
  measures were implemented?
• Question 7 Are the results credible and if so,
  are they clinically important?
• Question 8 What conclusions were drawn and are
  they justified by the results?
• Question 9 Are the findings of the study
  transferable to other clinical settings?