Qualitative Research Methods

Public health researchers aim to address complex and multifaceted problems that often require empirical data on key behavioral, cultural, and environmental questions. The other methods covered in this section approach those questions by collecting and analyzing quantitative or number-based data. Qualitative research, by contrast, relies heavily on other forms of data—primarily text, narrative, direct observation, and images—to address issues in public health. Sometimes, we are interested in describing what people are doing, why they are doing it, and the context of their actions (when and where the activities take place) as a first step toward addressing a particular public health issue. For instance, what are the behaviors, motivations, and contexts related to adolescent drug use, or domestic violence, or prescription drug misuse? In other cases, epidemiological or quantitative survey data define the parameters of an issue, but we need to fill in the explanatory why, where, and when to help interpret or apply those data. This is the case when surveillance or secondary data (Chapters 5 and 9, respectively) reveal a trend that can’t be explained by statistical correlation or the quantitative data alone. Qualitative research methods offer processes and techniques to help illuminate the relevant issues in both of these circumstances by examining the phenomena that underpin health beliefs, behaviors, or opinions.