Qualitative research and the epidemiological imagination: a vital relationship (original) (raw)
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Application of Qualitative Research Approach to Public Health
Confines of positivist epistemology in capturing social reality got increasingly articulated within social science theory and research since the turn of twentieth century. Alternatively, a number of postpositivist epistemologies emerged. These epistemologies redefined 'science', knowledge', and 'social reality'. Opinions, values and beliefs discounted by the former as non-facts and referred as outside the realm of knowledge were rearticulated back by the latter. Within the qualitative research approach purpose of social enquiry was, arguably, not to explain social phenomena from a universal evaluative framework, but to understand from within. Qualitative research grew in this philosophic and academic climate. Here, we enlist the nature and characteristics of the qualitative research approach resulting from its epistemological position and explain the relevance of qualitative research approach by sharing appropriate examples of research in the field of health.
Qualitative and quantitative research in social epidemiology: is complementarity the only issue?
Gaceta sanitaria / S.E.S.P.A.S, 2003
Although in recent years there has been a growing acceptance of qualitative research in social epidemiology, the role and scope of its use remain a contested terrain. We sketch some of the issues that have been the focus of the debate between supporters and critics of qualitative research in social epidemiology and adjacent public health disciplines. They include epistemological problems, such as the limitations of survey research to uncover social mechanisms, lack of background among epidemiologists to generate sound hypotheses for specific populations, and ontological problems such the idealism inherent in some of the qualitative research coming from anthropology. Next we review the urban ethnographies of Elliot Liebow's and a decade of population based research in African American and low income neighborhoods in the United States to expose another role for qualitative research in social epidemiology. Thus, we argue that qualitative research has been used in scientific debates...
Answering tough questions: Why is qualitative research essential for public health?
Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 2024
The complexity of global public health requires increasing sophistication and cooperation across research designs. Understanding core beliefs and values in diverse populations, incentives and demotivators, barriers and facilitators – all processes that sway public health behaviour, uptake, adherence, and thus outcomes – are in the QHR realm of expertise. Indeed, there are some public health issues that can only be understood with a qualitative approach, yet there are still issues of methodological marginalization within biomedical and public health fields. By critically examining the role of QHR in public health, and particularly arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, we present a vision for moving beyond defending QHR as valid and rigorous, to championing the use of qualitative methods as a standard of excellence in certain research areas, such as community-engaged studies on urgent emerging infectious diseases affecting socially marginalized populations. When other methods are more appropriate to a given research question, QHR is still, at the very least, an essential complement that can bolster or dialogue with even the most quantitative, clinical studies.
Gaceta Sanitaria, 2003
Although in recent years there has been a growing acceptance of qualitative research in social epidemiology, the role and scope of its use remain a contested terrain. We sketch some of the issues that have been the focus of the debate between supporters and critics of qualitative research in social epidemiology and adjacent public health disciplines. They include epistemological problems, such as the limitations of survey research to uncover social mechanisms, lack of background among epidemiologists to generate sound hypotheses for specific populations, and ontological problems such the idealism inherent in some of the qualitative research coming from anthropology. Next we review the urban ethnographies of Elliot Liebow's and a decade of population based research in African American and low income neighborhoods in the United States to expose another role for qualitative research in social epidemiology. Thus, we argue that qualitative research has been used in scientific debates that confront egalitarian researchers with institutions or peers with opposing economic interests and ideologies. Qualitative research is often a powerful tool to fuel alternative theoretical frameworks and measures to be included in quantitative population based surveys. We confine this use of qualitative research to the academic world and do not necessarily imply that communities benefit from it as in action research.
Utility of Qualitative Research Findings in Evidence-Based Public Health Practice
Public Health Nursing, 2006
Epidemiological data, derived from quantitative studies, provide important information about the causes, prevalence, risk correlates, treatment and prevention of diseases, and health issues at a population level. However, public health issues are complex in nature and quantitative research findings are insufficient to support practitioners and administrators in making evidence-informed decisions. Upshur's Synthetic Model of Evidence (2001) situates qualitative research findings as a credible source of evidence for public health practice. This article answers the following questions: (1) where does qualitative research fit within the paradigm of evidence-based practice and (2) how can qualitative research be used by public health professionals? Strategies for using qualitative research findings instrumentally, conceptually, and symbolically are identified by applying Estabrooks' (1999) conceptual structure of research utilization. Different research utilization strategies are illustrated through the use of research examples from the field of work on intimate partner violence against women. Recommendations for qualitative researchers disseminating findings and for public health practitioners/policy makers considering the use of qualitative findings as evidence to inform decisions are provided.
Epidemiological data, derived from quantitative studies, provide important information about the causes, prevalence, risk correlates, treatment and prevention of diseases, and health issues at a population level. However, public health issues are complex in nature and quantitative research findings are insufficient to support practitioners and administrators in making evidence-informed decisions. Upshur's Synthetic Model of Evidence (2001) situates qualitative research findings as a credible source of evidence for public health practice. This article answers the following questions: (1) where does qualitative research fit within the paradigm of evidence-based practice and (2) how can qualitative research be used by public health professionals? Strategies for using qualitative research findings instrumentally, conceptually, and symbolically are identified by applying Estabrooks' (1999) conceptual structure of research utilization. Different research utilization strategies are illustrated through the use of research examples from the field of work on intimate partner violence against women. Recommendations for qualitative researchers disseminating findings and for public health practitioners/policy makers considering the use of qualitative findings as evidence to inform decisions are provided.
Qualitative research and public policy: The challenges of relevance and trustworthiness
2011
This paper examines the relationship between qualitative research and public policy. For decades, qualitative and quantitative methodologists have debated the merits of one perspective in relation to others. Scholars, using diverse epistemological and ontological stances, have contested different beliefs about the criteria for judgment of rigorous research. Yet, such exchanges routinely ignore the unique ways in which qualitative research can inform policy. In this paper, the authors acknowledge previous examinations, and also intend to create a new discourse. The authors present the limitations of qualitative research; these limitations have historically been the justifications used by individuals to discount the use of qualitative research for policy studies. They conclude with the need to refocus on the usefulness of qualitative research and offer an evolving set of criteria for conducting policy-related research. The purpose is neither to oppose nor to diminish select methodologies; instead, it is to suggest a complimentary suite of qualitative and quantitative approaches to better investigate social issues.