The role of qualitative research in a national project on decision making about hysterectomy and the use of hormone replacement therapy.

Abstract

THIS SPECIAL ISSUE introduces the Ethnicity, Needs, and Decisions of Women (ENDOW) at midlife project, a federally funded multisite research project that focuses on how women of various ethnic groups make decisions about hysterectomy/surgical menopause and the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The ENDOW project combines qualitative and quantitative research approaches, and this issue of the Journal of Women’s Health & Gender-Based Medicine focuses on the results of the initial qualitative research conducted at each of the four ENDOW sites (Alabama, South Carolina, New Mexico, and Texas). This article serves as a brief introduction to the project and outlines why qualitative methods were used as a first phase of the research. We focus specifically on the intended purposes of qualitative research and how these purposes are related to the goals of ENDOW. The articles that follow describe the research at each site in more detail, elaborate on the specific qualitative methods that were used, and discuss how the data were used to determine quantitative instrument and intervention development.