Qualitative

Background: While many randomised controlled trials have been conducted on multivitamins, to our knowledge no qualitative research exploring the subjective experience of taking a multivitamin during a clinical trial has been reported. Methods: Semi-structured and open-ended written questions were incorporated into a 16-week double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel groups trial of once-daily multivitamin administration. At the final study visit (week 16), three open-ended questions were posed to elucidate any positive, ...

BackgroundQualitative systematic reviews are increasing in popularity in evidence based health care. Difficulties have been reported in conducting literature searches of qualitative research using the PICO search tool. An alternative search tool, entitled SPIDER, was recently developed for more effective searching of qualitative research, but remained untested beyond its development team.MethodsIn this article we tested the `SPIDER¿ search tool in a systematic narrative review of qualitative literature investigating the health care experiences of people with Multiple Sclerosis. Identical search terms were combined into the PICO or SPIDER search tool and compared across Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE and EBSCO CINAHL Plus databases. In addition, we added to this method by comparing initial SPIDER and PICO tools to a modified version of PICO with added qualitative search terms (PICOS).ResultsResults showed a greater number of hits from the PICO searches, in comparison to the SPIDER searche...

During the past decades, awareness has grown concerning the need for more democratic and inclusive research methods. This is especially salient for marginalised, colonised and silenced groups, such as the elderly, children and young people. In this article, we present and discuss future workshops as an appropriate method to achieve such democratic and inclusive research, and we posit that it can fruitfully be used together with other approaches outside the field of action research in which it has mostly been used to date. The discussion is based on our research with children and young people on sensitive and conflictual issues. We show how future workshops offer particular advantages when conducting research with children and young people in vulnerable situations, and about silenced and sensitive topics. We argue that these advantages, as well as ethical and other insights, can be transferred to research with other groups of people.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between service quality, the service encounter and the retail experience within a changing UK retail environment. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered from 40 customers and 20 staff of an established UK health and beauty retailer with a long-standing reputation for personal customer service. A qualitative analysis was applied using both a service quality and a customer value template. Findings – Customers focused more on the utilitarian features of the service experience and less on “extraordinary” aspects, but service staff still perceived that the customer encounter remained a key requisite for successful service delivery. Research limitations/implications – Recent environmental developments – involving customers, markets and retail platform structure – are challenging traditional service expectations. Practical implications – Retailers may need to reassess the role of the service encounter as part of t...

... The video-making process The producers of It all began with poverty – six women, Thandi, Lizzie, Bongi, Nokukhanya, Thengi, Mavis, and one man, Sipho (all ... Melodrama is a very popular performance genre within the Zulu culture of the women who produced the video. ...

As our population is aging, the global prevalence of dementia is rising. Recent extensive reviews of the dementia literature highlight a clear need for additional qualitative research to address the experiences of people with dementia and their carers. To date, the vast majority of published dementia research is quantitative in nature and, perhaps not surprisingly, attracts the bulk of government funding. In contrast, qualitative dementia research is poorly resourced and less frequently published. Although a myriad of factors are responsible for this dichotomy, we propose that inadequate funding represents the "elephant in the room" of dementia research. In this article, we describe and emphasize the need for qualitative dementia research, highlight existing barriers, and outline potential solutions. Examples of barriers are provided and theoretical underpinnings are proposed.

... STEPHEN FROSH Birkbeck College, University of London PETER D. EMERSON Unthank Family Centre, Norwich ... Foucauldian discourse analysis is especially clearly theoretical in its approach, employing some fairly grand notions of how social discourses sub-jectify persons ...

Medical practitioners, trained to isolate health within and upon the body of the individual, are now challenged to negotiate research and population health theories that link health status to geographic location as evidence suggests a connection between place and health. This paper builds an integrated place-health model and structural competency analytical framework with nine domains and four levels of proficiency that is utilized to assess a community-based photovoice project's ability to shift the practice of medicine by medical students from the surface of the body to the body within a place. Analysis of the medical student's photo-voice data demonstrated that the students achieved structural competency level 1 proficiency and came to understand how health might be connected to place represented by six of the nine domains of the structural competency framework. Results suggest that medical student's engagement with place-health systemic, institutional and structural forces deepens when they co-create narratives of their lived experiences in a place with patients as community members during a community-based photovoice project. Given the importance of place-health theories to explain population health outcomes, a place-health model and structural competency analytical framework utilized during a community-based photovoice project could help medical students merge the image of patients as singular bodies into bodies set within a context.

This essay is based on a cyber autoethnographic research I have conducted on Hornet, a geosocial networking application (GNA) created for gay and bisexual men, without establishing a clear-cut distinction between my identity as a user and that as a researcher. Here I discuss how feminist and queer autoethnography in and of cybercultures can refrain from objectifying or exploiting others by enabling research relations that (a) are not hierarchical, (b) disturb the researcher/researched binary, (c) embrace the impersonal ethics of cruising, and (d) do not shy away from recognizing the role of the researcher’s body unlike the conventional (masculine) researcher who allegedly has no emotional, erotic, or bodily presence within the field or in the research. I also address cruising as a queer autoethnographic method, while uncovering the methodological and ethical implications of doing autoethnography in a cyberfield that is libidinally invested.

In this article we develop an approach to coincidences as discursive activities. To illustrate the range of empirical questions that can be explored in the analysis of coincidence accounts, we examine one single written account, which was submitted to a website of a research project to investigate the statistical dimensions of coincidence experiences. Our analysis is broadly ethnomethodological in that we examine this single case to identify how structural and narrative components work to constitute the recognizably coincidental quality of the events so described. The analysis identifies a mirror structure that resembles chiasmus, a figurative device found in classical texts. The analysis also describes how the account is designed to address inferential matters related to the site to which it was submitted. In the discussion we reflect on the implications of this approach for other approaches to coincidence.

Many patients suffering from cancer make use of complementary therapies, with aromatherapy being a popular choice. Quantitative studies, using questionnaire data, have shown that aromatherapy may reduce psychological distress and enhance symptom control in cancer patients. However, little is known about the personal meanings patients associate with the therapy. This study explored the patients' experiences of aromatherapy using of a focus group interview. Eight themes emerged from the analysis, six of which have been acknowledged to some extent by previous authors: de-stressing effects of aromatherapy, the counselling role of the aromatherapist, aromatherapy as a reward, patient empowerment, communication through touch, and negative aspects of the service. Two apparently new themes emerged concerned with security of context (where the aromatherapy took place) and preconceived perceptions of the value of aromatherapy as a treatment of cancer patients. The implications of the find...

ABSTRACT Working across the differences that constitute 'cultures' is a common challenge for geographical researchers. Ideas about research are profoundly shaped by cultural contexts. As geographers, we are aware of and engaged by the complex and dynamic relationships between culture and geography - our thinking is shaped by where we research and the people we work with. We decided that it might be better to think of our writing in terms of a conversation across cultures and geographies, with each of us framing key questions arising from our readings of each other's work and the wider literature on cross-cultural research and our frustrations with existing practices and their impacts on people we work with. In the end, we have written the chapter as a conversational text. In many ways, the text parallels what we seek to emphasize about cross-cultural field-based research - it involves respectful listening, difficult and challenging engagements, careful attention to nuances in the lives of 'others' and a critical, long-term consideration of the implications of methods in the construction of meaning.

Planning for a Baby:  https://youtu.be/2iwLh6XCnq8

Pregnancy with IBD: https://youtu.be/br0kciD8xJk

Motherhood with IBD: https://youtu.be/TQjt8pnMv4I


Our aim is to provide an understanding of the experience of women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who have made the transition to motherhood. A total of 22 mothers with IBD were recruited from around the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. The central concept—Blurred Lines—offers a novel frame for understanding the transition to motherhood with IBD through identifying parallels between having IBD and becoming, and being, a mother. Parallels clustered into three main themes: Need for Readiness, Lifestyle Changes, and Monitoring Personal and Physical Development. Hence, women with IBD are in some ways well prepared for the challenges of motherhood even though, as a group, they tend to restrict their reproductive choices. We recommend health professionals initiate conversations about reproduction early and provide a multidisciplinary approach to pregnancy and IBD in which women have confidence that their ongoing treatment will be integrated successfully with their maternity care.

The education system in Malaysia is constantly changing in terms of the use of technology in teaching and learning process (T&L). Many studies have been conducted to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the technologies in the classroom. However, lack of studies have been made to identify students' perceptions of the integration of Web 2.0 approaches in achieving meaningful learning. The objective of this study was to identify the perception of the students’ feeling, technologies’ strengths, weaknesses, challenges and suggestions while using Web 2.0 technologies in order to achieve meaningful learning. Semi-structured interview protocol was used and the study was carried out through the interaction on Twitter towards 13 undergraduate students of Teaching English as a Second Language. The study found that the integration of technology in the classroom will increase student interest in using Web 2.0 technologies. Besides, result shows that there were several advantages and dis...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show why and how the “ride-along” can add great value to qualitative research. Design/methodology/approach The paper is primarily based on ethnographic research into food systems that the author carried out in Tanzania and draws on other research experience and existing literature on the “go-along” and “walk-along”. Findings Transport choices are made in all social science research and therefore deserve greater attention in research design. Transport will influence how the researcher is perceived and what they will experience and find. The ride-along, when done well, minimises the risks and adds value to qualitative research. Practical implications Researchers need to be reflexive about transport choices and give them greater consideration in research design and practice. The examples from field experience and the considerations identified in this paper will assist researchers and their supervisors in this process. Originality/value Despite th...