Reviewing and applying qualitative research to inform management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

This special collection ‘Looking Beyond the Numbers: Qualitative research in Respiratory Medicine’ celebrates research using qualitative methodologies to enable understanding of an individuals’ subjective experience and to address questions about meaning, perspectives, feelings and values. The qualitative researcher systematically gathers, organises, interprets and explains data from narratives (verbal and textual) or naturalistic observations (visual). Data collection techniques are tailored according to the research question. Focus groups are useful to understand normative beliefs and behaviour (i.e. what are peoples’ perceptions of e-cigarettes?), semistructured interviews glean views on focused topics (i.e. perceptions of the withdrawal of medications?), in-depth interviews seek to comprehend a condition or experience (i.e. what is the experience of adults with cystic fibrosis?) and analysis of text and documents, such as social media posts and websites, shed light on public knowledge (i.e. how do people view those with lung cancer?). The robustness of qualitative research has been questioned due to concerns about small sample sizes leading to lack of generalisability and biases linked to researchers’ own experiences and expectations. However, seeking generalisability is at odds with the focus of understanding a specific issue in a particular population and context. The integrity of qualitative research can be defended by addressing trustworthiness using quality criteria: credibility (the confidence in the truth of the findings), transferability (the degree to which the results can be transferred to other contexts), dependability (the stability of the results over time) and confirmability (the degree to which the results can be confirmed by others). Techniques to demonstrate trustworthiness may include triangulation of findings, member checking, providing a rich account of the data and ensuring transparency of findings by producing an audit trail.