Happ Mary Beth, Dabbs Annette DeVito, Tate Judith, Hricik Allison, Erlen Judith
School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, 311 Victoria Building, 3500 Victoria Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
Nurs Res. 2006 Mar-Apr;55(2 Suppl):S43-9. doi: 10.1097/00006199-200603001-00008.
Mixed methods research approaches can be applied to nursing and healthcare. Multiple perspectives and different types of data (e.g., social-behavioral data, numerical outcome measures, or clinical variables) often are needed to examine complex clinical problems and health behaviors fully. Although qualitative and quantitative methods are recognized widely as complementary for studying and explaining human phenomena, methodological techniques for combining and analyzing mixed methods data have received less attention.
To describe techniques for mixed methods data combination and analyses using three different design approaches.
Data combination and analysis techniques are presented using the following approaches: (a) mixed methods event analysis, (b) concurrent-mixed analysis for complementarity and completeness, and (c) concurrent nested analysis to provide a broader understanding of phenomena and enrich the description of participants.
Research exemplars from topical areas such as weaning from long-term mechanical ventilation, medication-taking among community-dwelling persons with dementia, health control beliefs after lung transplantation, and recovery from subarachnoid hemorrhage are presented. Simple and complex matrix construction and a variety of graphical displays are used to illustrate data combination and analysis techniques for mixed methods research.
The techniques for mixed methods data combination and analysis presented have the potential to advance the use and refinement of mixed methods research, thereby expanding the repertoire of methodologies to study complex phenomena of interest to nurses.
混合方法研究途径可应用于护理和医疗保健领域。要全面审视复杂的临床问题和健康行为，往往需要多个视角以及不同类型的数据（例如，社会行为数据、数值结果测量或临床变量）。尽管定性和定量方法被广泛认可为研究和解释人类现象的互补方法，但用于合并和分析混合方法数据的方法技术却较少受到关注。
描述使用三种不同设计方法进行混合方法数据合并与分析的技术。
采用以下方法展示数据合并与分析技术：（a）混合方法事件分析，（b）用于互补性和完整性的并行混合分析，以及（c）并行嵌套分析，以更全面地理解现象并丰富对参与者的描述。
呈现了来自诸如长期机械通气撤机、社区痴呆患者服药情况、肺移植后的健康控制信念以及蛛网膜下腔出血恢复等主题领域的研究实例。使用简单和复杂的矩阵构建以及各种图形展示来说明混合方法研究的数据合并与分析技术。
所呈现的混合方法数据合并与分析技术有可能推动混合方法研究的应用和完善，从而扩展用于研究护士感兴趣的复杂现象的方法库。
