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Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal qualitative methods are becoming increasingly used in the health service research, but the method and challenges particular to health care settings are not well described in the literature.We reflect on the strategies used in a longitudinal qualitative study to explore the e...

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Autores principales: Calman, Lynn, Brunton, Lisa, Molassiotis, Alex
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3598728/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23388075
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-14
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author Calman, Lynn
Brunton, Lisa
Molassiotis, Alex
author_facet Calman, Lynn
Brunton, Lisa
Molassiotis, Alex
author_sort Calman, Lynn
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Longitudinal qualitative methods are becoming increasingly used in the health service research, but the method and challenges particular to health care settings are not well described in the literature.We reflect on the strategies used in a longitudinal qualitative study to explore the experience of symptoms in cancer patients and their carers, following participants from diagnosis for twelve months; we highlight ethical, practical, theoretical and methodological issues that need to be considered and addressed from the outset of a longitudinal qualitative study. RESULTS: Key considerations in undertaking longitudinal qualitative projects in health research, include the use of theory, utilizing multiple methods of analysis and giving consideration to the practical and ethical issues at an early stage. These can include issues of time and timing; data collection processes; changing the topic guide over time; recruitment considerations; retention of staff; issues around confidentiality; effects of project on staff and patients, and analyzing data within and across time. CONCLUSIONS: As longitudinal qualitative methods are becoming increasingly used in health services research, the methodological and practical challenges particular to health care settings need more robust approaches and conceptual improvement. We provide recommendations for the use of such designs. We have a particular focus on cancer patients, so this paper will have particular relevance for researchers interested in chronic and life limiting conditions.
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spelling pubmed-35987282013-03-16 Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research Calman, Lynn Brunton, Lisa Molassiotis, Alex BMC Med Res Methodol Correspondence BACKGROUND: Longitudinal qualitative methods are becoming increasingly used in the health service research, but the method and challenges particular to health care settings are not well described in the literature.We reflect on the strategies used in a longitudinal qualitative study to explore the experience of symptoms in cancer patients and their carers, following participants from diagnosis for twelve months; we highlight ethical, practical, theoretical and methodological issues that need to be considered and addressed from the outset of a longitudinal qualitative study. RESULTS: Key considerations in undertaking longitudinal qualitative projects in health research, include the use of theory, utilizing multiple methods of analysis and giving consideration to the practical and ethical issues at an early stage. These can include issues of time and timing; data collection processes; changing the topic guide over time; recruitment considerations; retention of staff; issues around confidentiality; effects of project on staff and patients, and analyzing data within and across time. CONCLUSIONS: As longitudinal qualitative methods are becoming increasingly used in health services research, the methodological and practical challenges particular to health care settings need more robust approaches and conceptual improvement. We provide recommendations for the use of such designs. We have a particular focus on cancer patients, so this paper will have particular relevance for researchers interested in chronic and life limiting conditions. BioMed Central 2013-02-06 /pmc/articles/PMC3598728/ /pubmed/23388075 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-14 Text en Copyright ©2013 Calman et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Correspondence
Calman, Lynn
Brunton, Lisa
Molassiotis, Alex
Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research
title Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research
title_full Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research
title_fullStr Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research
title_full_unstemmed Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research
title_short Developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research
title_sort developing longitudinal qualitative designs: lessons learned and recommendations for health services research
topic Correspondence
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3598728/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23388075
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-14
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