The goals and needs of qualitative research in sexual medicine: recommendations from the Fifth International Consultation on Sexual Medicine (ICSM 2024).

IF 3.4 2区 医学 Q1 UROLOGY & NEPHROLOGY
Sharon L Bober, Yacov Reisman, Rafi Heruti, Eusebio Rubio-Aurioles, Eli Coleman, Ian Eardley, Juliana M Kling, Sharon J Parish
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction: As the field of sexual medicine continues to grow, there has been increasing attention on methodological integrity and rigor of sexual medicine research, including an emphasis on guidelines for quantitative research design and standards for assessing clinical trial outcomes. However, qualitative research (QR) methodology has garnered relatively scant attention in comparison.

Objectives: To clarify the value of QR and provide recommendations for improving implementation of QR methods in sexual medicine research.

Methods: A PubMed review was conducted. Expert opinion was based on a process of literature review and expert consensus.

Results: An essential goal of QR is to describe and explain unknown or insufficiently understood phenomena through detailed investigation of subjective human experience. Results from QR allow for generating hypotheses that may then be tested. More recently, mixed-methods research, ie, research integrating both qualitative and quantitative methods, is being increasingly used across domains of biomedical and health science research. While there remain differences of opinion regarding use of qualitative methodology in sexual medicine, best-practice models of QR underscore the principle of trustworthiness and include ethics and transparency in protocols for data collection and analysis. It is recommended that established QR frameworks for developing a research question are utilized and that consolidated criteria for reporting research results are employed. Furthermore, authors and reviewers need training in both QR methods and qualitative reporting frameworks to be able to adequately report and review this type of research. Specific areas in sexual medicine that would ideally benefit from QR methods are suggested.

Conclusion: As the field of sexual medicine continues to expand, qualitative methodologies including mixed-methods research, offer significant value for understanding domains of inquiry that have not been thoroughly investigated. To achieve these targets, training of authors and reviewers on QR is needed.

性医学定性研究的目标和需求:第五届国际性医学咨询会议(ICSM 2024)的建议。
导论:随着性医学领域的不断发展,人们越来越关注性医学研究方法的完整性和严谨性,包括强调定量研究设计的指导方针和评估临床试验结果的标准。然而,相比之下,定性研究(QR)的方法论得到的关注相对较少。目的:阐明QR法在性医学研究中的应用价值,并为改进QR法在性医学研究中的应用提出建议。方法:PubMed综述。专家意见是基于文献回顾和专家共识的过程。结果:QR的基本目标是通过对人类主观经验的详细调查来描述和解释未知或不充分理解的现象。QR的结果允许产生假设,然后可以进行测试。最近,混合方法研究,即结合定性和定量方法的研究,正越来越多地用于生物医学和卫生科学研究的各个领域。虽然在性医学中使用定性方法仍存在意见分歧,但QR的最佳实践模型强调了可信度原则,并在数据收集和分析的协议中包括道德和透明度。建议利用既定的QR框架来制定研究问题,并采用报告研究结果的综合标准。此外,作者和审稿人需要QR方法和定性报告框架方面的培训,以便能够充分报告和审查这类研究。在性医学的特定领域,将理想地受益于QR方法的建议。结论:随着性医学领域的不断扩大,定性方法包括混合方法研究,为理解尚未彻底调查的调查领域提供了重要价值。为了实现这些目标,需要对作者和审稿人进行QR培训。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Sexual medicine reviews
Sexual medicine reviews UROLOGY & NEPHROLOGY-
CiteScore
7.60
自引率
8.30%
发文量
5
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