Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
J Eval Clin Pract. 2011 Jun;17(3):429-34. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2753.2010.01444.x. Epub 2010 Oct 6.
RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Finding ways to incorporate disparate types of evidence into research syntheses has the potential to build a better evidence base for clinical practice and policy. Yet conducting such mixed research synthesis studies is challenging. Researchers have to determine whether and how to use adjusted and unadjusted quantitative findings in combination with each other and with qualitative findings.
Among quantitative findings, adjustment for confounding, either via study design or statistical analysis, can be a considerable source of heterogeneity. Yet there is no consensus about the best way to synthesize findings resulting from different methods for addressing confounding. When synthesizing qualitative and quantitative findings, additional considerations include determining whether findings are amenable to synthesis by aggregation or configuration, which, in turn, depends on the degree of interpretive transformation of findings.
Qualitative survey findings appear similar in form to unadjusted or minimally adjusted quantitative findings and, when addressing the same relationship, can be summed. More interpreted qualitative findings appear similar in form to adjusted findings found in, for example, structural equation models specifying the relationship among a host of latent variables. An option for synthesis of conceptually similar models is reciprocal translation.
These decisions will ultimately be judged on the meaningfulness of their results to practice or policy.
背景、目的和目标：寻找将不同类型的证据纳入研究综合的方法，有可能为临床实践和政策提供更好的证据基础。然而，进行此类混合研究综合研究具有挑战性。研究人员必须确定是否以及如何将调整后的和未调整的定量发现与彼此以及与定性发现相结合。
在定量发现中，通过研究设计或统计分析进行调整以消除混杂因素，可能是异质性的一个重要来源。然而，对于解决混杂因素的不同方法产生的发现，哪种方法最适合综合，尚未达成共识。在综合定性和定量发现时，还需要考虑确定发现是否可以通过聚合或配置进行综合，而这又取决于发现的解释性转换程度。
定性调查发现的形式与未调整或最小调整的定量发现相似，当处理相同的关系时，可以进行汇总。更具解释性的定性发现的形式与例如指定许多潜在变量之间关系的结构方程模型中的调整发现相似。具有相似概念模型的综合选择是相互翻译。
这些决策最终将根据其对实践或政策的结果的意义进行判断。
