scholarly journals Use of Ecomaps in Qualitative Health Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veena Manja ◽  
Ananya Nrusimha ◽  
Harriet MacMillan ◽  
Lisa Schwartz ◽  
Susan Jack
Keyword(s):  
Health Research ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Qualitative Health Research ◽  
Full Text Review ◽  
Privacy And Confidentiality ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Question Development

Qualitative health research plays a central role in exploring individuals’ experiences and perceptions of wellness, illness, and healthcare services. Visual tools are increasingly used for data elicitation. An ecomap is a visual tool that applies ecosystems theory to human communities and relationships to provide an illustration of the quality of relationships. We describe the use of ecomaps in qualitative health research. Searches across eight databases identified 407 citations. We screened them in duplicate to identify 129 publications that underwent full text review and included 73 in the final synthesis. We classified and summarized data based on iterative comparisons across sources. Benefits of using ecomaps include improving rapport and engagement with study participants, facilitating iterative question development, and highlighting the social contexts of relationships. When used in conjunction with interviews, they promote data credibility through triangulation. Investigators have used ecomaps as a tool to facilitate primary and secondary analysis of data. Researchers have adapted the ecomap to meet their health research needs. Challenges to their use include additional time and training needed to complete, and potential privacy and confidentiality concerns. Ecomaps can be useful in qualitative health research to enhance data elicitation, analysis, presentation, and to augment study rigor.

A Bird in the Hand Isn’t Good for Long

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Scherbaum ◽  
Simon Frisch ◽  
Maja Dshemuchadse
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Folk Wisdom ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract. Folk wisdom tells us that additional time to make a decision helps us to refrain from the first impulse to take the bird in the hand. However, the question why the time to decide plays an important role is still unanswered. Here we distinguish two explanations, one based on a bias in value accumulation that has to be overcome with time, the other based on cognitive control processes that need time to set in. In an intertemporal decision task, we use mouse tracking to study participants’ responses to options’ values and delays which were presented sequentially. We find that the information about options’ delays does indeed lead to an immediate bias that is controlled afterwards, matching the prediction of control processes needed to counter initial impulses. Hence, by using a dynamic measure, we provide insight into the processes underlying short-term oriented choices in intertemporal decision making.

Environmental Health Research and Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 753-764
Author(s):  
David B. Resnik
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Environmental Interventions ◽  
Environmental Health Research ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Research Regulations ◽  
Kennedy Krieger Institute ◽  
Privacy And Confidentiality

This chapter discusses some of the key ethical issues that arise in environmental health research involving human subjects, including returning individualized research results, protecting privacy and confidentiality, research on environmental interventions, intentional exposure studies, research regulations, autonomy, beneficence, informed consent, payments to subjects, and protecting vulnerable human subjects. The chapter will discuss issues that are common to all research designs, as well as those unique to certain types of designs, such as intentional exposure studies. It will also address ethical issues that arose in two important cases, the Kennedy Krieger Institute lead abatement study, and the Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study.

scholarly journals What was the impact of a participatory research project in Australian Indigenous primary healthcare services? Applying a comprehensive framework for assessing translational health research to Lessons for the Best

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e040749
Author(s):  
Shanthi Ann Ramanathan ◽  
Sarah Larkins ◽  
Karen Carlisle ◽  
Nalita Turner ◽  
Ross Stewart Bailie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Primary Healthcare ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Return On Investment ◽  
Health Centre ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Secondary Outcome ◽  
Cost Consequence ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
The Impact

ObjectivesTo (1) apply the Framework to Assess the Impact from Translational health research (FAIT) to Lessons from the Best to Better the Rest (LFTB), (2) report on impacts from LFTB and (3) assess the feasibility and outcomes from a retrospective application of FAIT.SettingThree Indigenous primary healthcare (PHC) centres in the Northern Territory, Australia; project coordinating centre distributed between Townsville, Darwin and Cairns and the broader LFTB learning community across Australia.ParticipantsLFTB research team and one representative from each PHC centre.Primary and secondary outcome measuresImpact reported as (1) quantitative metrics within domains of benefit using a modified Payback Framework, (2) a cost-consequence analysis given a return on investment was not appropriate and (3) a narrative incorporating qualitative evidence of impact. Data were gathered through in-depth stakeholder interviews and a review of project documentation, outputs and relevant websites.ResultsLFTB contributed to knowledge advancement in Indigenous PHC service delivery; enhanced existing capacity of health centre staff, researchers and health service users; enhanced supportive networks for quality improvement; and used a strengths-based approach highly valued by health centres. LFTB also leveraged between $A1.4 and $A1.6 million for the subsequent Leveraging Effective Ambulatory Practice (LEAP) Project to apply LFTB learnings to resource development and creation of a learning community to empower striving PHC centres.ConclusionRetrospective application of FAIT to LFTB, although not ideal, was feasible. Prospective application would have allowed Indigenous community perspectives to be included. Greater appreciation of the full benefit of LFTB including a measure of return on investment will be possible when LEAP is complete. Future assessments of impact need to account for the limitations of fully capturing impact when intermediate/final impacts have not yet been realised and captured.

scholarly journals Life Quality and Participation of Disabled Children and Young People: Design and Methods of a Transformative Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160940692110167
Author(s):  
Snæfrídur Thóra Egilson ◽  
Linda B. Ólafsdóttir ◽  
Anna Sigrún Ingimarsdóttir ◽  
Freyja Haraldsdóttir ◽  
Ásta Jóhannsdóttir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Quality ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Childhood Disability ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Design And Methods

The LIFE-DCY research project has two aims. First, to evaluate disabled children’s quality of life (QoL) as reported by themselves and their parents, and second, to locate commonalities, differences, and conflicting issues in the processes that may influence disabled children’s life quality and participation. This paper describes the study design, methodology, and methods along with lessons learned. In addition various methodological and ethical concerns are raised. A sequential mixed-methods design was applied. In Phase one (mapping) we used KIDSCREEN-27 to study how disabled children evaluate their QoL compared with the perspectives of their parents and those of non-disabled children and their parents. Using the Participation and environment measure we also studied parents’ perspectives of their children’s participation in different social contexts. Altogether 209 disabled children and their parents, and 335 children in a control group and their parents (paired reports) participated in phase one. Phase two (unpacking) consisted of 14 case studies with disabled children aged 8–18 years and focus groups with 21 disabled people aged 19–35 years. The initial analysis was inductive and data-oriented. We then used critical and transformative lenses to shed light on how meaning was made of life quality and participation in relation to the context in which study participants found themselves. The LIFE-DCY research promotes an understanding of how important aspects of life quality and participation may intersect within different contexts and at different times. The theoretical understandings from this study may also help unpack various aspects of childhood disability in terms of knowledge and power and enhance understandings of how ideas about normality and childhood disability are constructed.

Appraising qualitative health research—towards a differentiated approach

2021 ◽  
pp. bmjebm-2021-111772
Author(s):  
Veronika Williams ◽  
Anne-Marie Boylan ◽  
Nicola Newhouse ◽  
David Nunan
Keyword(s):  
Health Research ◽  
Qualitative Health Research

Five Approaches to Qualitative Comparison Groups in Health Research: A Scoping Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
Scoping Review ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Qualitative Comparison ◽  
Qualitative Health Research ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Comparison Groups

Qualitative researchers have much to gain by using comparison groups. Although their use within qualitative health research is increasing, the guidelines surrounding them are lacking. The purpose of this article is to explore the extent to which qualitative comparison groups are being used within health research and to outline the lessons learned in using this type of methodology. Through conducting a scoping review, 31 articles were identified that demonstrated five different types of qualitative comparison groups. I highlight the key benefits and challenges in using this approach.

Population Health and Social Governance: A Review, an Update, Some Clarifications, and a Response

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 731-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick O’Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Qualitative Health Research ◽  
Social Governance ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
And Control

Critical theory is a paradigm that promotes viewpoints that are alternative and, at times, contrary to mainstream beliefs and dictates. In 2012, I adopted this perspective to review the role of ethnography and surmised that the data which arise from this research approach, which I described as an in-depth study of cultures, can be used to discipline and control these groups. In this edition of Qualitative Health Research, another author has critiqued this position. In this article, I review this critique, reiterate my position, update the data I used for my 2012 article, and highlight how I navigate what I feel is a tension between critical theory and practice.

scholarly journals Revisiting a Boy Named Jim

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 160940691880916
Author(s):  
Katherine Bischoping
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Vicarious Traumatization ◽  
Childhood Experience ◽  
Good Story ◽  
Common Criteria ◽  
Qualitative Health Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Analysis Strategies

Using examples from qualitative health research and from my childhood experience of reading a poem about a boy devoured by a lion (Belloc, 1907), I expand on a framework for reflexivity developed in Bischoping and Gazso (2016). This framework is unique in first synthesizing works from multidisciplinary narrative analysis research in order to arrive at common criteria for a “good” story: reportability, liveability, coherence, and fidelity. Next, each of these criteria is used to generate questions that can prompt reflexivity among qualitative researchers, regardless of whether they use narrative data or other narrative analysis strategies. These questions pertain to a broad span of issues, including appropriation, censorship, and the power to represent, using discomfort to guide insight, addressing vicarious traumatization, accommodating diverse participant populations, decolonizing ontology, and incorporating power and the social into analyses overly focused on individual meaning-making. Finally, I reflect on the affinities between narrative – in its imaginatively constructed, expressive, and open-ended qualities – and the reflexive impulse.

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