Abstract
Qualitative research in global health requires substantial operational and logistical support during both the implementation phase and day-to-day operations. However, little to no published work shares the experiences of international qualitative research teams. Yet, without a strong project foundation and attention to everyday details, studies can begin without appropriate guidance and, as a result, poor quality data may be generated. This paper presents a detailed account of a project coordinator's experience implementing 4 qualitative HIV and reproductive health studies in Uganda between 2012 and 2014, reflecting on our research team's practices and lessons learnt, and provides recommendations for successful project implementation. The aim of this paper is to help new global health qualitative project coordinators, and international teams more generally, by detailing 6 coordination tasks: hiring, training, team communication, organization of study documents, data collection and storage, and research ethics. To avoid repeat learning of basic, yet important, logistical steps by each new qualitative research project coordinator, this paper can help coordinators think about how to organize their work in order to prepare for both planned and unplanned challenges that have been encountered by others. Sharing operational and logistical experiences and expertise can benefit the global health community and help future studies run more efficiently.
Highlights
While quantitative research still dominates global health, the use of qualitative research has increased over the past decade
Our studies focused on in-depth interviews with: 1) serodiscordant couples regarding their pregnancy plans;25 2) health care workers about their views and knowledge of reproductive health care for HIV patients;26 3) men living with HIV about their practices and motivations around disclosure and family planning practices and; 4) recently pregnant women living with HIV and mental health care workers about postpartum depression.[27,28]
Over the course of our studies presented in this paper, many of our research collaboration team members were excited to learn about our work and expressed interest in learning more about the qualitative research methods used in our studies and the lessons shared in this paper
Summary
While quantitative research still dominates global health, the use of qualitative research has increased over the past decade. All 4 of our global health qualitative studies were focused on HIV, reproductive health, and access to care, and were conducted in Mbarara, Uganda. Uganda has one of the highest total fertility rates globally, estimated at 6 children per woman.[23] HIV prevalence among adults (aged 15–49 years) is estimated at 7.3%, with higher prevalence among women (8.3%) compared with men (6.1%).[24] Our studies focused on in-depth interviews with: 1) serodiscordant couples regarding their pregnancy plans;25 2) health care workers about their views and knowledge of reproductive health care for HIV patients;26 3) men living with HIV about their practices and motivations around disclosure and family planning practices and; 4) recently pregnant women living with HIV and mental health care workers about postpartum depression.[27,28] These qualitative studies were developed from an ongoing reproductive health study within the Uganda Antiretroviral Rural Treatment Outcomes (UARTO) cohort study[21] in Mbarara, and were all separately approved under national and university research ethics boards. Health care workers were recruited by contacting clinics within the district of Mbarara
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