Qualitative Description: A “How-To” Guide

This guide is based on multiple presentations we have given to doctoral students about the use of qualitative description (QD) and our own work using QD over the past 21 years. We were motivated to make this guide widely available due to the lack of adequate resources (manuscripts and textbooks) that cover QD. It is our hope that others will be open to this pragmatic approach, which is both creative and rigorous and can be useful for exploring phenomena from a qualitative perspective. Many published articles claim to use QD (e.g., approximately 3,600 in PubMed). However, guidelines for conducting a QD study are lacking. Kim et al. (2016) expressed a similar sentiment in their systematic review of studies that used QD. The lack of a rigorous systematic approach leads to inconsistencies in sampling procedures, inadequate sample sizes, and lack of theoretical or conceptual orientations to build knowledge. Research that uses QD is not intended to find underlying interpretive meanings or to describe the culture of a group; it is designed instead to describe the rich, truthful perspectives of those experiencing a specific and focused situation or phenomenon. The results of a QD study are expressed in common, easy-to-understand language. Therefore, it is especially useful when working with clinical populations, communities, and across different cultural groups. The QD approach provides rich description and makes an important contribution to knowledge development. We hope that this guide will become an essential reference for those interested in using this specific qualitative approach

Congenital Circumferential Constriction Band of the Abdomen: A Case Report

We report a case of congenital constriction band of abdomen associated with limb pseudarthrosis. The constriction band around the abdomen, though may cause initial difficulty with ventilation and parental distress, does not interfere with feeding, bowel movements, and growth. It heals spontaneously with supportive treatment though surgery may be needed in some cases

Stressful events in early childhood and developmental trajectories of bedwetting at school age

Objective To examine whether early stressful events are associated with developmental trajectories of bedwetting. Methods This is a prospective cohort study comprising 8,761 participants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Stressful events were measured using a maternal questionnaire completed at 3 time points before their child was 4 years old. The association between stressful events and trajectories of bedwetting from 4 to 9 years was examined using multinomial regression. Results The association with stressful events was strongest for the frequent persistent bedwetting trajectory (wetting at least twice a week up to age 9). A 1 standard deviation increase in the stressful events score was associated with a 29% (13–47%) increase in the odds of experiencing frequent persistent bedwetting compared with normal attainment of nighttime bladder control. Conclusions Clinicians and parents should be aware that continence is a developmental outcome that is associated with high levels of stress in the family

Critical incidents in a forensic psychiatric population: An exploratory study of motivational factors

This exploratory study examined the motivations for forensic clients’ engagement in critical incidents, specifically hostage-taking, barricades and roof-top protests. Using thematic analysis, a range of themes were identified. These included engaging in such incidents to seek deliberate isolation from others, gaining control, getting their needs meet, a need to communicate and being influenced by their peers. Selection of potential hostages appeared linked to feeling of grievance towards them. Yet the distress of a hostage, along with consideration as to the longer term consequences of their actions both for themselves and morally, appeared to reduce the risk of engagement in such incidents. The results are discussed in terms of Individualism, Self-Determination Theory of Motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

Online information as a decision making aid for cancer patients: recommendations from the Eurocancercoms project.

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The role of early childhood psychological factors in determining risk for enuresis at school age in a UK cohort

There is evidence for a link between psychological factors and bedwetting, but the direction of this association is unclear. Using data on 8769 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we examined whether difficult temperament (Toddler Temperament Scale at 24 months; Emotionality Activity Sociability Questionnaire at 38 months) and psychological problems (Revised Rutter Parent Scale for Preschool Children at 42 months) are linked to bedwetting at school age. We examined the association between these risk factors and different patterns of bedwetting from 4 to 9 years using multinomial regression. Difficult temperament and psychological problems in early childhood were associated with increased odds of bedwetting at 4–9 years. The strongest associations were most often found for the pattern of bedwetting that was both frequent (at least twice a week) and persistent (up to age 9) e.g. the temperament traits of ‘adaptability’ and ‘mood’ were associated with a 33 % increase (95 % confidence interval = 1.14–1.55) and a 27 % increase (1.10–1.47) respectively in the odds of persistent and frequent bedwetting per one standard deviation increase in risk score. Early behaviour problems (e.g. conduct problems [1.43 (1.25, 1.63)] and hyperactivity [1.29 (1.11, 1.50), p < 0.001]) were also associated with frequent and persistent bedwetting, but there was less evidence that early emotional difficulties were risk factors for bedwetting. Adjustment for confounders did not alter these conclusions. The presence of difficult temperament and behaviour problems in early childhood might help to identify children who will continue to experience bedwetting at school age. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00787-015-0756-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Testing Multiple Hypotheses through IMP weighted FDR Based on a Genetic Functional Network with Application to a New Zebrafish Transcriptome Study

In genome-wide studies, hundreds of thousands of hypothesis tests are performed simultaneously. Bonferroni correction and False Discovery Rate (FDR) can effectively control type I error but often yield a high false negative rate. We aim to develop a more powerful method to detect differentially expressed genes. We present a Weighted False Discovery Rate (WFDR) method that incorporate biological knowledge from genetic networks. We first identify weights using Integrative Multi-species Prediction (IMP) and then apply the weights in WFDR to identify differentially expressed genes through an IMP-WFDR algorithm. We performed a gene expression experiment to identify zebrafish genes that change expression in the presence of arsenic during a systemic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. Zebrafish were exposed to arsenic at 10 parts per billion and/or infected with P. aeruginosa. Appropriate controls were included. We then applied IMP-WFDR during the analysis of differentially expressed genes. We compared the mRNA expression for each group and found over 200 differentially expressed genes and several enriched pathways including defense response pathways, arsenic response pathways, and the Notch signaling pathway