Table 1.

Published Mixed Methods Investigations in Primary Care

Study CharacteristicsBaskerville et al12Kutner et al13McVea et al14McIlvain et al15Nutting et al16
Content areaAn evaluation study of 22 intervention practices for implementing prevention guidelines by 54 family physicians in Southwestern OntarioA communication study of the information needs of terminally ill patients receiving palliative care from physiciansAn evaluation of the effectiveness of “Put Prevention into Practice” program in family physician private practice settingsA study to determine factors associated with use of counseling skills and office-based activities related to tobacco control by family physiciansA study of barriers toward initiating guideline- concordant acute- phase care for patients with major depression by physicians and nurses
Rationale for mixing“To determine intervention quality, triangulation was used to attain a complete understanding. … Multiple data sources and analysis methods were used.”“Qualitative interviews were initially conducted to identify and describe key themes. These data were then used to develop a semistructured instrument.”“Multiple data collection strategies were used to ensure comprehensiveness and triangulation of results.”Not statedNot stated
Forms of data collection
    QuantitativeWeekly and monthly activity sheets Closed-ended questions during telephone interview Mailed questionnaireInstrument (multiple choice, open-ended) based on qualitative interviews SF-36 Health SurveyOffice environment and clinical encounters checklists Chart auditsReview of medical recordsStructured checklists completed by physicians Structured interviews completed by patients
    QualitativeMonthly narrative reports Telephone interviews Interviews at end of interventionFace-to-face open- ended interviewsParticipant observation Key informant interviews of office staff Semistructured interviews with physicians and office managersObservation of practice environments Key informant interviews with support staff Patient encounters Physician interviewsStructured telephone interviews with physicians and nurses
Analytical procedure
    QuantitativeDescriptive and content analysis of weekly activity sheets Content analysis of interviews Chi-square analysesDescriptive and inferential analysisDescriptive statisticsDescriptive scaled qualitative data Correlations RegressionCluster analysis
    QualitativeDescription from monthly narrative reportsTemplate analysis involving coding and common issues across categories of interview data and open-ended instrument dataCategories and themes Descriptive case studiesNoneContent group analysis using card sort process
Characteristics of design
    PriorityQuantitativeEqualQualitativeQuantitativeQuantitative
    ImplementationConcurrent Quantitative + qualitativeSequential Qualitative → quantitativeConcurrent Qualitative + quanitativeSequential Qualitative → quantitativeSequential Qualitative → quantitative
IntegrationAnalysis and report of resultsFrom data analysis to data collectionAnalysis and report of resultsFrom data analysis to data collectionFrom data analysis to data collection
Type of design modelTriangulationInstrument designTriangulationData transformationInstrument design