Rose et al. did a qualitative study of both mental health care service users and providers to explore barriers and facilitators of disclosure of domestic violence. I hope it is ok that I will focus only on the first question of the checklist by Kuper et al.
Was the sample used in the study appropriate to its research question?
Only 18 service users who had experienced domestic violence were included. Looking at Rose et al.’s results I think the number of participants seemed appropriate, I just do not understand why they included five participants who were perpetrators. Please correct me if I got this wrong, but I thought they wanted to explore the barriers of disclosure of people who suffered from violence and not the views of violators!
Further, does a sample of 18 people really give an appropriate diversity in age ethnicity, diagnosis and experience in domestic violence? Only 2 of the 18 participants were male - there is definitely not an appropriate diversity in sex and gender!I found it surprising though that they included 10 men and 10 women in the mental health professionals group. Why didn’t they do so in the service user group?