Barbour R S
Department of General Practice, University of Glasgow, UK.
J Health Serv Res Policy. 1999 Jan;4(1):39-43. doi: 10.1177/135581969900400110.
A judicious combination of qualitative and quantitative methods can play a valuable role in health services research. This paper reviews the main reasons for combining methods: for different stages in a project; to compensate for the shortcomings of individual methods; and for the purpose of 'triangulation'. It examines the potential for qualitative approaches to contribute to quantitative work--by providing insights into the process of data construction, identifying relevant variables to be studied, furnishing explanations for unexpected or anomalous findings, and generating hypotheses or research questions for further investigation. Similarly, qualitative work can be enhanced by using quantitative techniques--albeit often in a modified form--in analysing data, developing sampling strategies, and amalgamating findings from separate qualitative studies. Although there is potential to develop multi-method approaches, there remains an important role for rigorous studies employing either qualitative or quantitative methods.
定性方法与定量方法的明智结合在卫生服务研究中可以发挥重要作用。本文回顾了方法结合的主要原因：针对项目的不同阶段；弥补个别方法的不足；以及出于“三角互证”的目的。它探讨了定性方法对定量研究做出贡献的潜力——通过深入了解数据构建过程、识别待研究的相关变量、为意外或异常发现提供解释，以及生成供进一步研究的假设或研究问题。同样，定性研究也可以通过使用定量技术（尽管通常是经过修改的形式）来加强，用于分析数据、制定抽样策略以及整合来自不同定性研究的结果。尽管有开发多方法途径的潜力，但采用定性或定量方法的严谨研究仍具有重要作用。
