Generating qualitative data by design: the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health qualitative data collection

Abstract

Objectives and importance of study: The purpose of this study was to illustrate how qualitative free-text comments, collected within the context of a health survey, represent a rich data source for understanding specific phenomena. Study type:Work conducted with data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) was used to demonstrate the breadth and depth of qualitative information that can be collected. The ALSWH has been collecting data on women's health since 1996, and represents a unique opportunity for understanding lived experiences across the lifecourse.Methods: A multiple case study design was used to demonstrate the techniques that researchers have used to manage free-text qualitative comments collected by the ALSWH. Results and conclusions:Eleven projects conducted using free-text comments are discussed according to the method of analysis. These methods include coding (both inductively and deductively), longitudinal analyses and software-based analyses. This work shows that free-text comments are a data resource in their own right, and have the potential to provide rich and valuable information about a wide variety of topics.

“I can be a mum or a professional, but not both”: What women say about their experiences of juggling paid employment with motherhood

“…; Tavener et al. ; Terry & Braun ). These comments have successfully been utilised to explore multifaceted and complex health experiences of women, ranging from contraceptive use to widowhood (see e.g.…”

“…We selected comments based on participant's quantitative responses, a process akin to identifying a sampling frame from which the data for analysis are drawn (Tavener et al. ). Our sampling frame therefore included women who reported that they provide care for their or their partners’ children at Survey 7 (regardless of the age of their child/children), and regardless of whether women were engaged in paid employment.…”

“…; Tavener et al. ]). We inductively analysed the data, sticking as close to the participant comments as possible.…”

“…Previous explorations of these comments have demonstrated the rich and varied data spanning a wide range of topics (Tavener et al. ). Given that many Australian women will engage in juggling paid employment with motherhood, we aimed to examine free‐text comments from the ALSWH to understand if and how women with children engage in the discourse of “good motherhood” in the context of managing paid employment with motherhood.…”

The motivation and capacity to go ‘above and beyond’: Qualitative analysis of free-text survey responses in the M@NGO randomised controlled trial of caseload midwifery

“…Women's experiences of childbirth and maternity care were measured using 7-point scales; the results of the quantitative analysis will be published separately. In this paper, we report on the analysis of participants' free text comments which provided rich and valuable information and are considered a data source in their own right (Tavener et al, 2016). While the survey included eight statements that allowed free text responses, this paper focussed only on the following statements: 1) Please describe any things about your pregnancy that you were particularly happy with;…”