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When should we choose qualitative research?

A community health worker program in rural Kenya raised skilled birth attendance from 42 to 61%, and the numbers were right, but incomplete. Some women still walked past the clinic to a traditional birth attendant, because the health workers didn't speak their dialect. Qualitative research asks how, why and what it means, and the researcher is the primary instrument, so reflexivity matters. In Nairobi, a discrete choice experiment showed which counseling features adolescents traded for which. Interviews in Lilongwe showed why clinics felt trustworthy, and where people disagreed.

Also covered: interpretive and positivist paradigms · reflexivity and positionality · emergent design · qualitative vs quantitative questions