Toolkit: Communication for Behavioural Impact (COMBI)

by UNICEF, WHO & FAO, Mesh Editorial Team
14th January 2019 • comment

Blog post: Wellcome: Zika: Q&A with a medical anthropologist

by Sharon Abramowitz, Mesh Editorial Team
7th January 2019 • 0 comments

We report a qualitative study embedded in a trial of second antidepressant for people who had not responded to one antidepressant, exploring the acceptability of a combination of antidepressants from the perspectives of both patients and practitioners, together with experiences of participating in a clinical trial.

17th December 2018 • 0 comments

In this commentary, I trace the evolution of this trend, illustrating how a reasonable original intent has taken a misguided turn in the context of competing understandings and priorities in health care knowledge development.

17th December 2018 • 0 comments

Protective parents and permissive children: what qualitative interviews with parents and children can tell us about the feasibility of juvenile idiopathic arthritis trials

by Frances C. Sherratt, Louise Roper, Simon R. Stones, Flora McErlane, Matthew Peak, Michael W. Beresford, Helen Foster, Athimalaipet V. Ramanan, Madeleine Rooney, Eileen Baildam, Bridget Young

Studies involving CYP are advocated in the literature but we are not aware of any early stage feasibility studies that have qualitatively accessed the perspectives of parents and CYP with a long term condition to inform design and conduct of a trial. In the context of a feasibility study to inform the design of a proposed randomised controlled trial of corticosteroid induction regimen in JIA, we explored families’ perspectives on the proposed trial and on JIA trials generally.

17th December 2018 • comment

Nurses’ perceptions towards the delivery and feasibility of a behaviour change intervention to enhance activity in patients at risk for cardiovascular disease in primary care: a qualitative study

by Heleen Westland, Yvonne Koop, Carin D. Schröder, Marieke J. Schuurmans, P. Slabbers, Jaap C. A. Trappenburg, Sigrid C. J. M. Vervoort

 This study aimed to evaluate nurses’ perceptions towards the delivery and feasibility of the Activate intervention.

17th December 2018 • 0 comments

Including qualitative research in Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT): opportunities for nursing researchers

by Loredana Sasso, Mark Hayter, Gianluca Catania, Giuseppe Aleo, Milko P Zanini, Annamaria Bagnasco

n this editorial we argue that qualitative research can enhance the quality, rigor and depth of an RCT –but at present this is an opportunity that is frequently missed. We further propose that not only can qualitative research enhance the design and conduct of an RCT it also provides an opportunity for qualitative researchers (often nurse researchers) and research nurses (often not actively involved in undertaking research) to work with medical colleagues to improve the quality of RCT design.

6th November 2018 • 1 comment

This page provides links to commonly used reporting guidelines for qualitative research, as well as articles which provide useful information about how to write about your research.

22nd October 2018 • 0 comments

This paper provides a general guide to presenting qualitative research for publication in a way that has meaning for authors and readers, is acceptable to editors and reviewers, and meets criteria for high standards of qualitative research reporting across the board. We discuss the writing of all sections of an article, placing particular emphasis on how you might best present your findings, illustrating our points with examples drawn from previous issues of this Journal. 

22nd October 2018 • 1 comment

Generalisation in relation to qualitative research has rarely been discussed in-depth in sport and exercise psychology, the sociology of sport, sport coaching, or sport management journals. Often there is no mention of generalizability in qualitative studies. When generalizability is mentioned in sport and exercise science journals it is often talked about briefly or highlighted as a limitation/weakness of qualitative research.

4th October 2018 • 0 comments

As the use of qualitative methods in health research proliferates, it becomes increasingly necessary to consider how the value of a piece of qualitative research should be assessed. This article discusses the problem posed by the novelty and diversity of qualitative approaches within health psychology and considers the question of what criteria are appropriate for assessing the validity of a qualitative analysis.

4th October 2018 • 0 comments

This article presents a model for quality in qualitative research that is uniquely expansive, yet flexible, in that it makes distinctions among qualitative research’s means (methods and practices) and its ends.

4th October 2018 • 0 comments
15th August 2018 • 0 comments

Interviewing adolescents on sensitive topics: some lessons from the field

by Mary Nyambura, Nancy Mwangome, Derrick Ssewanyana, Anderson Charo, Rita Wanjuki, Scholastica Zakayo, Irene Jao

In planning for a second Kenyan case study for REACH a multi-country study aiming to understand ethical dilemmas and appropriate responses in studies involving vulnerable populations – we needed some advice on how to conduct interviews with adolescents exposed to HIV (HIV positive themselves, or having HIV positive parents).  Here are some of the ideas on interviewing adolescents that we shared in a 2-hour brainstorming session. 

31st July 2018 • 0 comments

The Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach and paradigm is gaining ground within implementation and operational research agendas for international health interventions and programmes. The action planning, implementation and reflection stages allow for immediate research uptake and modification. 

31st July 2018 • 0 comments

Doing analysis as a team: headache or helpful?

by Dennis Waithaka, Nancy Kagwanja

Most of us sharing our analysis approaches in the qualitative analysis workshop are working in some kind of team: even the PhD students talked about involving their supervisors or colleagues in the analytical process. There can be headaches and challenges in working as part of a team, but it can be enjoyable, and enrich our learning and the rigor of our analysis. Here, we draw on our experiences of analyzing our recently collected data to describe how teamwork has contributed to the process of analysis for our qualitative research.

23rd July 2018 • 0 comments

HDSS occupy a grey area between research, health care and public health, and have received little attention in the ethics literature and guidelines.  Together with my supervisors, I recently developed a coding framework to analyse qualitative individual interview and focus group discussion data that I collected from two HDSS sites in Kenya. 

23rd July 2018 • 1 comment

Interview summaries provide a concise description of information under a series of headings, usually including the key points of what was said, as well as any non-verbal observations and reflections by those present on the quality and context of the interview. This paper describes how to use interview summaries in your research.

23rd July 2018 • 1 comment

Preparing data: the not-so-simple stage of transcription and translation

by Sophie Chabeda, Jane Kahindi, Manya Van Ryneveld

These helpful notes from a workshop conducted in May 2018 provide useful guidance about translation and transcription of qualitative research data

23rd July 2018 • 0 comments