Qualitative vs Quantitative Research in Healthcare Studies

Medical students and researchers must have a fundamental understanding of both types of research in healthcare, which include qualitative and quantitative research. Both types of research help in evaluating the health and health care of various populations.

As mentioned earlier, both types of research help evaluate health and health care; however, they both reach this conclusion in differing ways. Qualitative research assesses health and health care in a descriptive way. Alternatively, quantitative research assesses health and health care in a way that leads to generalizations.

Picking the most suitable type of research for a given situation help reach the conclusions that are most valid. In some circumstances, it is beneficial to use both types of research to reach the most valid and significant conclusions.

What Are Healthcare Research Methods?

Healthcare research methods are employed to collect, study, and analyze various data pertaining to health, sickness, illness, healing, treatment, and a myriad of other allied topics.

These research methods are utilized by students pursuing a degree in the field of health and are especially popular in various academic disciplines such as medicine, nursing, allied health sciences, public health, and other related fields.

Healthcare research is generally conducted in an effort to assist a given population by improving health and health care services. It encompasses both primary and secondary research to improve various outcomes.

What Is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research in health care focuses on the various factors that influence an individual's health including their personal beliefs, experiences, perceptions, and other behavioral factors. This type of research is generally exploratory in nature. It helps answer various research questions by analyzing data in a descriptive way. There is no emphasis on statistics and measurements in this type of research.

There are many ways to approach qualitative research in health care. For instance, a researcher may want to understand an individual's experience in using a particular health care service. The researcher may want to understand how a particular health care service improved an individual's health status.

Common Qualitative Methods

Interviews are the most common of qualitative methods. Usually, researchers will ask participants a series of questions, often open-ended, and allow them the opportunity to fully communicate their perspective.

Another qualitative method is the focus group. Here, a facilitator will pose questions to a group of participants, often allowing group discussion in order to elicit differing opinions.

Of course, there is always the method of researcher observation. This can occur in a variety of settings and allows the researcher the opportunity to gather information on participant behavior.

Of course, there are case studies, which are qualitative in nature and focus on an individual.

Other methods such as ethnography and phenomenology encourage the researcher to look at behaviors of a group and/or phenomenon. Researchers can analyze the information gained through various qualitative analytic methods.

What Is Quantitative Research?

Quantitative research in health care focuses on numbers. Questions relating to change, comparison, and/or the existence of a relationship are answerable through quantitative research.

Generally speaking, through health care related research, questions dealing with frequency and/or quantity will be quantitative in nature.

To determine the effectiveness of a blood pressure lowering medication, quantitative research is necessary to determine if the medication caused a reduction in a participant's blood pressure.

This can be measured and quantified through various methods, such as the use of statistical analysis.

Common Quantitative Methods

The most common of quantitative research methods is the survey.

Experiments, of course, are also common. The gold standard of health care research is the clinical trial.

There are many variations of observational research such as case-control, cohort, and cross-sectional studies.

Both methods focus on the relationships between variables. The former helps identify such relationships, and the latter helps verify research hypotheses.

Key Differences Between the Two Methods

The main difference between qualitative and quantitative research in health care is the type of data.

In health care, the main focus of research is the patients and staff. Therefore, both qualitative and quantitative research are essential and complementary in health care.

Quantitative research is typically used to determine the level or extent of something, e.g. the level of adherence to a treatment regimen by patients, and the number and extent of medical errors committed by health care workers. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is usually employed to analyze the rationale and the underlying factors that lead to the commitment of a medical error by a health care worker.

Why Are Both Methods Important?

Many health care research studies produce large numbers (e.g. a given percentage of patients fully adhered to their treatment regimen, or the average number of medical errors committed by health care workers per month). However, determining the rationale or the reasons behind the numbers may help clarify the research findings. Therefore, both quantitative and qualitative research are complementary in health care and other related fields.

What Is Mixed Methods Research?

Mixed methods research in health care and allied professions entails the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies in the same study.

It is beneficial to incorporate qualitative methods when the research question cannot be sufficiently answered by quantitative methods.

A Simple Healthcare Example

Suppose a research team wishes to evaluate a recently developed patient support program by a healthcare organization.

Initially, the researchers may create and disseminate a satisfaction survey to the program participants and capture the program outcomes.

Additionally, the researchers may conduct in-depth interviews to gain more information about the participants’ program perceptions.

Although a large sample size may not be feasible or necessary to capture program outcomes, qualitative data and program perceptions may provide additional context to program participants’ experiences.

How to Choose the Right Research Method

It is helpful to gain a basic understanding of the characteristics of qualitative and quantitative research to help make an informed method selection.

Think about the research questions and the information that is required to answer the questions.

Choose Qualitative Research When

Use qualitative research to document individuals’ experiences and/or beliefs.

Examples of qualitative research include studies of:

• Patients’ experiences
• Patients’ beliefs and/or attitudes
• Patients’ perceptions
• Staff members’ behaviors
• Patients’ perceptions of their healthcare providers
• Barriers to patients seeking or using available healthcare services
• Other healthcare-related behaviors

qualitative research is particularly useful when the focus of the research is on the description or interpretation of phenomena.

Choose Quantitative Research When

Use quantitative research to produce results that are measurable or that can be expressed in the form of numbers.

Examples of quantitative research include studies of:

• Effects of various interventions or treatments
• Outcomes of various healthcare interventions
• Changes in patients’ health status
• Changes in the health of a population
• Risks to health
• Differences in the health of various population groups
• Hypotheses testing
• Other statistical analyses

What Makes Healthcare Research Reliable?

Besides the appropriate choice of research methodology, other aspects of the research process must also be adequately planned.

In the course of a research study, the researcher must decide on various aspects of the research, such as the sample to be studied and the methodology to be used for data collection. The researcher must consider how large the sample should be. The researcher should take into account potential bias that may arise during the course of the research.

The focus of a research study may be to validate or verify an idea. Other studies may focus on determining phenomena.

Issues of ethics must always be taken into account during the course of a research study.

Research and Evidence-Based Healthcare

Research plays an important role in evidence-based healthcare.

Healthcare professionals need good evidence when making clinical decisions. Research can help them understand which treatments work and what patients need.

Quantitative research is helpful in measuring risk and health trends. It can also measure the outcomes of treatment.

On the other hand, qualitative research assists in providing insights into patients’ experiences and perceptions. It also helps to illustrate the diverse ways in which people engage with health services.

Positive impact of both types of research on patient care and the practice of health professionals is well documented.

The same is true in the United Kingdom. People in the National Health Service (NHS) and allied health professionals need and use research evidence to redesign the ways in which they work to achieve quality improvement in health and healthcare.

Choosing the Right Research Design

A clear research design helps researchers select the right types of research for a healthcare study. Qualitative research methods often use interviews and case studies to explore experiences in the real world and the social sciences. A quantitative method uses numerical data and structured data collection methods to identify patterns and test hypotheses. Common quantitative research methods include descriptive research, correlational research, and experimental research. In experiments, participants may be randomly assigned to groups to study a cause-and-effect relationship. Researchers then use statistical analysis to examine the results. A suitable research methodology may also use mixed methods research to combine numerical findings with detailed human experiences.

Final Thoughts

Evaluating differences between qualitative and quantitative research in health care helps students decide which kind of research is appropriate for a given health care-related study.

Qualitative research helps to understand various health-related phenomena by interpreting unstructured data through various theories and frameworks. On the other hand, quantitative research helps to arrive at conclusions by analyzing data using various mathematical and statistical methods.

Both, qualitative and quantitative research help to translate health care-related theory to practice. Both kinds of research are inter-related and complementary.

Often, researchers may be comfortable with, or prefer to use, one of the two types of research. In such cases, they may use the two types of research in combination, and arrive at conclusive results and answer research questions.

Using different research designs, coupled with sound research practices, may lead to formulation of evidence, and facilitate achieving desired health-related goals including improved health and wellbeing.