
The increasing popularity of qualitative methods is a result of failure of quantitative methods to provide insight into in-depth information about the attitudes, beliefs, motives, or behaviours of people, for example in understanding the emotions, perceptions and actions of people who suffer from a medical condition. 1 There has also been a corresponding rise in the reporting of qualitative research studies in medical and health related journals.



Qualitative research has seen an increased popularity in the last two decades and is becoming widely accepted across a wide range of medical and health disciplines, including health services research, health technology assessment, nursing, and allied health.
