Member Checking: A Tool to Enhance Trustworthiness or Merely a Nod to Validation?
The trustworthiness of results is the bedrock of high quality qualitative research. Member checking, also known as participant or respondent validation, is a technique for exploring the credibility of results. Data or results are returned to participants to check for accuracy and resonance with their experiences. Member checking is often mentioned as one in a list of validation techniques. This simplistic reporting might not acknowledge the value of using the method, nor its juxtaposition with the interpretative stance of qualitative research. In this commentary, we critique how member checking has been used in published r...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - October 5, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Birt, L., Scott, S., Cavers, D., Campbell, C., Walter, F. Tags: Innovative Methods Source Type: research
Measuring Down: Evaluating Digital Storytelling as a Process for Narrative Health Promotion
We present key evaluation findings of a 2-year, mixed-methods study that focused on effects of participating in the DST process on young Puerto Rican Latina’s self-esteem, social support, empowerment, and sexual attitudes and behaviors. Quantitative results did not show significant changes in the expected outcomes. However, in our qualitative findings we identified several ways in which the DST made positive, health-bearing effects. We argue for the importance of "measuring down" to reflect the locally grounded, felt experiences of participants who engage in the process, as current quantitative scales do not "measure...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - October 5, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Gubrium, A. C., Fiddian-Green, A., Lowe, S., DiFulvio, G., Del Toro-Mejias, L. Tags: Innovative Methods Source Type: research
Reflections and Recommendations for Conducting In-Depth Interviews With People With Dementia
This article draws on the literature and experiences of a diverse group of authors, including a person with dementia, to provide recommendations about conducting research with people with dementia. Particular attention is given to in-depth interviews as a qualitative technique. More specifically, topics discussed include interview guide preparation, recruitment, obtaining consent/assent, conducting effective interviews, analysis and interpretation of data, effective communication of research findings, and reflections and recommendations for maintaining researcher and participant health. Given the current obstacles to parti...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - October 5, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Cridland, E. K., Phillipson, L., Brennan-Horley, C., Swaffer, K. Tags: Pearls, Pith & amp;amp; Provocation Source Type: research
Asking Numbers to Speak: Verbal Markers and Stages of Change
Through routine screenings for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, medical providers are able to motivate behavior change. Although established models rely on quantitative measures, doing so requires time and ability to score each. Listening for verbal cues, however, could simplify the process of suggesting HIV screenings. Using mixed methods to identify verbal indicators for readiness to change, this article conducted two phases of study. First using quantitative means of identifying participant’s knowledge of HIV, perceptions of safer sex, and readiness to change safer sex behaviors (N = 487). Interview...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - October 5, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Johnson, M. A. Tags: Innovative Methods Source Type: research
Sample Size in Qualitative Interview Studies: Guided by Information Power
We present a model where these elements of information and their relevant dimensions are related to information power. Application of this model in the planning and during data collection of a qualitative study is discussed. (Source: Qualitative Health Research)
Source: Qualitative Health Research - October 5, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Malterud, K., Siersma, V. D., Guassora, A. D. Tags: Innovative Methods Source Type: research
Parallel-Serial Memoing: A Novel Approach to Analyzing Qualitative Data
The mechanisms by which talking therapies exert their beneficial effects are largely unknown. In exploring the process of a talking therapy, motivational interviewing (MI), when used to treat and prevent low mood in stroke survivors, we developed, what we believe to be, a novel approach to analyzing transcripts. We illustrate the method using qualitative data from MI sessions with 10 stroke survivors. The approach, drawing on grounded theory, incorporated processes of parallel and serial memoing among a team of researchers to allow a process of validation. This enabled us to describe session content and to develop theoreti...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - October 5, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Patel, K., Auton, M. F., Carter, B., Watkins, C. L., Hackett, M., Leathley, M. J., Thornton, T., Lightbody, C. E. Tags: Innovative Methods Source Type: research
Reflexivity and the "Acting Subject": Conceptualizing the Unit of Analysis in Qualitative Health Research
The ways in which social scientists conceptualize the "reflexive" human subject have important consequences for how we go about our research. Whether and how we understand human subjects to be the authors of our own actions helps to structure what we say about health, health care, and the many other topics addressed in qualitative health research. In this article, I critically discuss assumptions of human reflexivity that are built into qualitative social science of health and medicine. I describe three alternative ways of understanding reflexive thought and human action derived from the theoretical works of Pierre Bourdie...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - October 5, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Shaw, J. A. Tags: Innovative Methods Source Type: research
Barriers to Male Involvement in Antenatal Care in Rural Mozambique
Low rates of antenatal care (ANC) service uptake limit the potential impact of mother-to-child HIV-prevention strategies. Zambézia province, Mozambique, has one of the lowest proportions of ANC uptake among pregnant women in the country, despite the availability of free services. We sought to identify factors influencing ANC service uptake (including HIV counseling and testing) through qualitative methods. In addition, we encouraged discussion about strategies to improve uptake of services. We conducted 14 focus groups to explore community views on these topics. Based on thematic coding of discourse, two main themes...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Audet, C. M., Chire, Y. M., Vaz, L. M. E., Bechtel, R., Carlson-Bremer, D., Wester, C. W., Amico, K. R., Gonzalez-Calvo, L. Tags: Responses to Care Source Type: research
What Brings You Here? Exploring Why Young Adults Seek Help for Social Anxiety
Social anxiety disorder typically manifests in young adulthood, but there is an absence of qualitative research on the actual experiences of young adults suffering with this disorder. The aim of the present study was to investigate the lived experiences of 29 Norwegian university students who were seeking professional help for symptoms of social anxiety. We conducted in-depth interviews prior to a clinical trial. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a team-based thematic analysis method based on a hermeneutic-phenomenological epistemology. We identified five themes: (a) from being shy to interpreting anxiety ...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Hjeltnes, A., Moltu, C., Schanche, E., Binder, P.-E. Tags: Responses to Care Source Type: research
"How Would We Deserve Better?" Rural-Urban Dichotomy in Health Seeking for the Chronically Ill Elderly in China
As China’s older adult population has rapidly increased, the attending increase in chronic disease poses serious concerns regarding disparities in medical care utilization for elders. Drawing on 48 semistructured interviews with elders with chronic conditions and their caregivers in China, this article analyzes two opposite patterns of health-seeking behavior in urban and rural areas. Presenting the findings as a relational model, we argue that the interplay between structures of medical care and cultural discourses about health and (un)worthiness generates different habitus as sets of practices and beliefs that faci...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Long, Y., Li, L. W. Tags: Responses to Care Source Type: research
Doctor-Patient Relationship Between Individuals With Fibromyalgia and Rheumatologists in Public and Private Health Care in Mexico
The aim of this article was to describe and analyze the doctor–patient relationship between fibromyalgia patients and rheumatologists in public and private health care contexts within the Mexican health care system. This medical anthropological study drew on hospital ethnography and patients’ illness narratives, as well as the experiences of rheumatologists from both types of health care services. The findings show how each type of medical care subsystem shape different relationships between patients and doctors. Patient stigmatization, overt rejection, and denial of the disease’s existence were identifie...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Colmenares-Roa, T., Huerta-Sil, G., Infante-Castaneda, C., Lino-Perez, L., Alvarez-Hernandez, E., Pelaez-Ballestas, I. Tags: Responses to Care Source Type: research
Exploring Professional Help-Seeking for Mental Disorders
In this study, we aimed to investigate attitudes toward help-seeking among non-help-seekers drawn from a community survey in South London. We conducted qualitative interviews with 24 participants with symptoms of mental disorders. We analyzed data using thematic analysis. Participants’ reasons for not seeking professional help included perceiving their problems as normal or unsuitable for professional help, negative expectations of professional help, believing informal strategies were sufficient, fearing being stigmatized for having a mental disorder and help-seeking, and self-perceptions of being strong and/or self-...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Savage, H., Murray, J., Hatch, S. L., Hotopf, M., Evans-Lacko, S., Brown, J. S. L. Tags: Responses to Care Source Type: research
Influences on Case-Managed Community Aged Care Practice
In this study, we aimed to explore influences on case-managed community aged care practice from the perspectives of community aged care case managers. We conducted 33 semistructured interviews with 47 participants. We drew these participants from a list of all case managers working in aged care organizations that provided publicly funded case management program(s)/packages in Victoria, Australia. We used a multilevel framework that included such broad categories of factors as structural, organizational, case manager, client, and practice factors to guide the data analysis. Through thematic analysis, we found that policy ch...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: You, E., Dunt, D., Doyle, C. Tags: Policy Source Type: research
Using Joint Interviews to Add Analytic Value
Joint interviewing has been frequently used in health research, and is the subject of a growing methodological literature. We review this literature, and build on it by drawing on a case study of how people make decisions about taking statins. This highlights two ways in which a dyadic approach to joint interviewing can add analytic value compared with individual interviewing. First, the analysis of interaction within joint interviews can help to explicate tacit knowledge and to illuminate the range of often hard-to-access resources that are drawn upon in making decisions. Second, joint interviews mitigate some of the weak...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Polak, L., Green, J. Tags: Methods Source Type: research
Researching Lived Experience of Drugs and Crime: A Phenomenological Study of Drug-Dependent Inmates
This study identified the main components of the drugs and crime experience of a sample of 25 drug-dependent inmates interviewed in prison. Text analyses were conducted using a phenomenological method. The sample was characterized by a disruptive childhood in multi-problematic families and deviant social contexts where drug use and crime were considered normal since early adolescence. Drug initiation involved recreational use of dance drugs and/or cocaine, and the pleasure experienced was identified as the cause of subsequent persistent use. Three pathways that led to dependence were identified: The narcissistic pathway wa...
Source: Qualitative Health Research - August 29, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Facchin, F., Margola, D. Tags: Responses to Care Source Type: research
