Dalglish Sarah L, Khalid Hina, McMahon Shannon A
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Institute for Global Health, University College London, Institute for Global Health 3rd floor, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK.
Health Policy Plan. 2021 Feb 16;35(10):1424-1431. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czaa064.
Document analysis is one of the most commonly used and powerful methods in health policy research. While existing qualitative research manuals offer direction for conducting document analysis, there has been little specific discussion about how to use this method to understand and analyse health policy. Drawing on guidance from other disciplines and our own research experience, we present a systematic approach for document analysis in health policy research called the READ approach: (1) ready your materials, (2) extract data, (3) analyse data and (4) distil your findings. We provide practical advice on each step, with consideration of epistemological and theoretical issues such as the socially constructed nature of documents and their role in modern bureaucracies. We provide examples of document analysis from two case studies from our work in Pakistan and Niger in which documents provided critical insight and advanced empirical and theoretical understanding of a health policy issue. Coding tools for each case study are included as Supplementary Files to inspire and guide future research. These case studies illustrate the value of rigorous document analysis to understand policy content and processes and discourse around policy, in ways that are either not possible using other methods, or greatly enrich other methods such as in-depth interviews and observation. Given the central nature of documents to health policy research and importance of reading them critically, the READ approach provides practical guidance on gaining the most out of documents and ensuring rigour in document analysis.
文献分析是卫生政策研究中最常用且最有效的方法之一。虽然现有的定性研究手册为进行文献分析提供了指导，但对于如何运用该方法来理解和分析卫生政策，却鲜有具体讨论。借鉴其他学科的指导意见以及我们自身的研究经验，我们提出了一种用于卫生政策研究文献分析的系统方法，即READ方法：（1）准备材料，（2）提取数据，（3）分析数据，（4）提炼研究结果。我们针对每个步骤提供了实用建议，同时考虑了诸如文献的社会建构性质及其在现代官僚机构中的作用等认识论和理论问题。我们给出了来自我们在巴基斯坦和尼日尔工作的两个案例研究的文献分析示例，其中文献为一个卫生政策问题提供了关键见解，并深化了实证和理论理解。每个案例研究的编码工具作为补充文件包含在内，以启发和指导未来的研究。这些案例研究说明了严谨的文献分析对于理解政策内容、过程以及围绕政策的话语的价值，其方式是使用其他方法无法做到的，或者极大地丰富了诸如深度访谈和观察等其他方法。鉴于文献在卫生政策研究中的核心性质以及批判性阅读文献的重要性，READ方法为充分利用文献并确保文献分析的严谨性提供了实用指导。
