This guide provides an overview of qualitative research in the health sciences. It is intended as an introductory resource for researchers and only briefly touches on more technical aspects of qualitative and textual analysis. If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact me using the information below.
Not all data can be easily coded into numbers. Qualitative research is used to describe and analyze situations in non-quantifiable ways. Instead of generating numerical data, it attempts to "explore and understand people's beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behavior, and interactions" using a systematic, subjective approach to evaluate evidence (Moore, 2006). As it aims to improve insight into social, emotional, or experiential phenomena, its approach is more inductive in nature and its interpretations are more descriptive.
