Tag Archives: mixed methods

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Improvement Science and Research Methods seminar: Prof Alicia O’Cathain on process evaluation in clinical trials

alicia2 Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Sheffield, Alicia O’Cathain, who heads the Medical Care Research Unit at ScHARR, gave an outstanding CaHRU/LIH seminar on ‘Using process evaluations alongside randomised controlled trials and other outcome evaluations’ on 23 May 2018 at the University of Lincoln.

CaHRU_logotypeThe seminar was based on the Medical Research Council guidance on process evaluations (Moore G, Audrey S, Barker M, Bond L, Bonell C, Cooper C, Hardeman W, Moore L, O’Cathain A, Tannaze T, Wight D, Baird J. Process evaluation of complex interventions. Medical Research Council guidance. BMJ 2015 350:h1258) which Prof O’Cathain co-authored. She described the importance of process evaluations using mixed methods in helping researchers realise how understanding trial processes can help us appreciate how or why a complex interventions works or does not work as intended, which is critical to its effectiveness and subsequent implementation.

LIFH-logo-web2She went on to describe the contextual factors that determine how an intervention works, limit what is delivered, affect how it works and govern what effects it has. Qualitative interviews with those delivering or receiving the intervention can help elucidate the components that are deemed useful and their perceived benefits while quantitative analysis can help to enumerate the mediators of any effects. The analysis can be integrated to develop a logic model and programme theory of the intervention.

Prof O’Cathain concluded by covering key aspects of planning, analysis and reporting of process evaluations and introducing her new book on the subject.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2018/07/OCathain-Using-process-evaluations-alongside-RCTs.pdf” width=”660″]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

 

By Prof A N Siriwardena

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CAHRU/LIH improvement science and research methods seminar: Mixed methods

QIlogoThe first of this year’s series of CaHRU/LIH (Community and Health Research Unit/Lincoln Institute for Health) improvement science and research methods seminars was given by Prof Siriwardena on mixed methods on 16 February 2016. Improvement and implementation science benefits from the use of mixed research designs which combine quantitative and qualitative methods to show not only what happened but also why and how this might have occurred. Mixed methods approaches are a subset of multiple methods which involve more than one type of qualitative or quantitative method.

ascqilogoThe seminar covered principles such as definitions, theoretical approaches (such as pragmatism and transformation), basic and advanced (including case study) designs and approaches to data integration and transformation. This was then applied to examples of mixed methods designs used by CaHRU in a previous programme of research: the Ambulance Services Cardiovascular Quality Initiative (ASCQI). ASCQI was a national project, led by CaHRU and East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, designed to improve care for people presenting to ambulance services with heart attack or stroke using a large-scale quality improvement collaborative (QIC), evaluated using a multiple case-study design.

NWASami170112ASCQI involved gathering quantitative and qualitative data to describe what effect the QIC had, and how improvements, if they did occur, were brought about. Integration of data was carried out using techniques such annotated control charts showing time series data together with what was implemented, pattern matching comparing what services did and whether improvements occurred (doi:  10.1186/1748-5908-9-17), and comparison of quantitative and qualitative data from an online questionnaire (doi: 10.1111/jep.12438). Attendees were finally asked to consider a mixed methods question and think about research designs which they might use to answer it.

Thank you to all those staff and students who attended. Details of future seminars will be posted on the CaHRU and the LIH sites shortly.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2016/02/Mixed-methods_Siriwardena.pdf” responsive=”no”]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

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Carers of dementia sufferers: Empowerment and Efficacy via Education (CADS: E3)

BA team from CaHRU, led by Dr Jo Middlemass has come together with researchers from the Schools of Education (Prof Terence Karran), Psychology (Dr John Hudson) and Social Science (Despina Laparidou, Prof Niro Siriwardena, Dr Karen Windle, Dr Paul Mansfield) to conduct a study investigating quality of life and outcomes for informal caregivers of people with dementia. Dementia – which includes conditions such as Alzheimer’s – is a progressive degenerative neurological disease with no known cure. There are approximately 800,000 UK patients currently, and it is estimated that by 2050 there will be more than 100 million people suffering from the disease worldwide.

BThis study, funded by the University of Lincoln Research Investment Fund, aims to improve carer and patient outcomes by developing a psychoeducational intervention for carers of people with dementia, with an emphasis on carers undertaking a more formal monitoring role. The study, which started in August 2014, has a mixed-methods design, involving a systematic literature review and a qualitative study, including both focus groups and interviews, with caregivers of people with dementia and with health care professionals.

The anticipated end of the study is July 2015 and future plans include conducting a feasibility study and thereafter a full clinical trial to test the proposed intervention and its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness on a larger scale.

Despina Laparidou