This paper examines the value of mixed methods research as a strategy for answering complex research questions that neither qualitative nor quantitative approaches can fully address alone. Drawing on examples from public health — particularly HIV/AIDS care — the paper explains how combining both methodologies produces richer, more comprehensive, and more generalizable findings. It also discusses the researcher's personal commitment to developing fluency in both approaches, outlines specific strategies for becoming a more skilled practitioner and consumer of mixed methods research, and identifies five core mixed methods design types described by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Although more time-consuming and costly, mixed methods research can also be more fruitful than either qualitative or quantitative methods alone. Mixed methods combine qualitative and quantitative approaches in ways that are suitable for answering a complex set of research questions. Because the researcher can use more than one research design in the same study, mixed methods can "answer a broader range of research questions" (Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching [CIRT], n.d., p. 1). However, mixed methods can be like performing two separate studies at once, which does require more resources and time. Commonly used in the social sciences and in public health research, mixed methods should be employed when it is both feasible and warranted (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], 2013). Researchers should always endeavor to approach a problem from as many angles as possible and consider the way their chosen research methods might impact interpretation of a problem — and, more importantly, impact public policy.
Mixed methods extend understanding of a research problem in several important ways. Case studies and other qualitative methods offer an in-depth and personalized, humanized insight into how public health or social problems impact the lives of individuals and families. Likewise, interviews and focus groups can offer policymakers insight into how certain policies and programs are being perceived, helping to determine why compliance rates or customer satisfaction rates are low. However, qualitative approaches fail to illustrate the scope of a problem in terms of population distributions, and cannot demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships between variables.
Mixed methods, on the other hand, can offer the type of global, statistical, and data-driven information that policymakers need while also providing insight into some of the more nuanced implications of any problem, program, or policy. The data collected is "rich and comprehensive" (AHRQ, 2013) as well as more generalizable and potentially more valid (CIRT, n.d.).
Mixed methods approaches have proven particularly fruitful when studying public health interventions for patients with HIV/AIDS. In one study, a mixed methods approach illuminated which elements of an HIV care center were working and which were not meeting the needs of patients (Chow, Quine, & Li, 2010). Chow, Quine, and Li (2010) found that mixed methods "increased the comprehensiveness of overall findings, by showing how qualitative data provided explanations for statistical data" (p. 491). Additionally, they point out how using mixed methods allowed the researchers to "expand the dimensions of the research topic," preventing an overly and artificially narrow view of the issues (p. 491).
In fact, mixed methods can even "increase methodological rigor," because the results of each component of the mixed methods study verify the other (Chow, Quine, & Li, 2010). Of course, internal validity still needs to be rigorous, as each study will have its own methodological constraints. It is highly important that the researcher or team of researchers remain thoroughly versed in both quantitative and qualitative methods when conducting the study, analyzing the results, and presenting findings in written reports.
"Personal ethics, evidence-based decisions, and informed consumption"
"Practical steps for building practitioner and consumer fluency"
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