Conducting a meta-ethnography of qualitative literature: Lessons learnt

Abstract

Background: Qualitative synthesis has become more commonplace in recent years. Metaethnography is one of several methods for synthesising qualitative research and is being used increasingly within health care research. However, many aspects of the steps in the process remain ill-defined.

A metasynthesis of risk perception in women with high risk pregnancies

“…There are no widely agreed criteria against which to judge the quality of qualitative research (Atkins et al 2008), nor is there agreement as to how or whether quality should be reported within a metasynthesis (Dheensa et al 2012). Quality of studies included in this paper was assessed using a checklist but no studies were excluded on quality grounds.…”

The prevalence, impact and management of musculoskeletal disorders in older people living in care homes: a systematic review

“…Through this, after emersion in the included studies, all emerging themes were identified and placed in a grid to examine how the concepts juxtaposed or related to one another [19]. The relevant themes were then grouped into categories by two reviewers independently (RP, TS).…”

“…The relevant themes were then grouped into categories by two reviewers independently (RP, TS). We then created categories on the basis of primary data from the included studies rather than prior knowledge [19]. Constant comparative techniques were then used to compare how these emergent categories related to the primary data/original texts.…”

“…The results of this were compared between each review and consensus was reached through discussion to identify all agreed primary and secondary-order themes. Analysis of these key categories was then undertaken through the reciprocal translation and development of lines of argument as advocated by Atkins et al s [19] …”

Systematic reviews: from ‘bare bones’ reviews to policy relevance

“…As a result, authors often have to obtain and review a high number of full-text articles to determine which articles meet the inclusion criteria, which, of course, has time and resource implications (Atkins et al 2008). Extensive searching of the grey literature, hand searching of books and journals, snowballing and contacting experts have been found to be particularly important in identifying studies for inclusion Peacock 2005, Thomas andHarden 2008).…”