BMJ  2004;328:1010-1012 (24 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7446.1010

Education and debate

Integrating qualitative research with trials in systematic reviews

¹ Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating (EPPI) Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, London WC1H 0NR

An example review from public health shows how integration is possible and some potential benefits

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The value of including data from different types of studies in systematic reviews of health interventions is increasingly recognised. A recent editorial accepted that qualitative research should be included in systematic reviews, but pointed to a "daunting array of theoretical and practical problems."¹ This article presents an approach to combining qualitative and quantitative research in a systematic review. We describe how we used this approach in a systematic review of interventions to promote healthy eating among children, full details of which are available.²

The review framework

The review question was: "What is known about the barriers to, and facilitators of, healthy eating among children aged 4-10 years?" The specific focus of the review was fruit and vegetable intake. We searched for two types of research: controlled trials (randomised or non-randomised) that examined interventions to promote healthy eating and studies that examined children's perspectives and understandings (views studies), often by using qualitative research methods—for . . . [Full text of this article]

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Quality assessment

Synthesis 1: meta-analysis of data from trials

Synthesis 2: synthesis of qualitative studies

Synthesis 3: bringing the two sets of studies together

Discussion

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