Module: Health, Illness and Society

Topic 5


Topic 5: Critical appraisal of a qualitative paper

Objectives

When you have completed the reading and participated in the taught components for this week, we hope you will be able to:

  • List some features of quality in qualitative research
  • Confidently read a paper that describes a qualitative research study
  • Identify examples of good qualitative research and poor qualitative research

Lecture: Appraising qualitative papers

This interactive lecture will go systematically through a published paper using a critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research.

 

Seminar: Critical appraisal

In this seminar, you will share your own comments and suggestions on a new paper.

 

Click below to discuss:


Preparation for this week

Read the first of the two papers below (Hirst et al), which we will discuss during the lecture. Use the critical appraisal checklist (Kuper et al) to help you decide what are the good and less good features of the study described in the paper. The last paper on the list (Rose et al) will be discussed in the virtual seminar.

Set reading

 

CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Kuper A, Lingard L, Levinson W. Critically Appraising Qualitative Research. British Medical Journal 2008;337:a1035 (Read it here)

 

ACADEMIC PAPERS

[for discussion in lecture] Hirst et al. Women with gestational diabetes in Vietnam: A qualitative study to determine attitudes and health behaviours. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 2012, 12:81. (Read it here)

[for discussion in virtual seminar] Rose et al. Barriers and facilitators of disclosures of domestic violence by mental health service users: qualitative study. British Journal of Psychiatry 2011, 198:189-194. (Read it here)