Supporting best practice in reflexive thematic analysis reporting in Palliative Medicine: A review of published research and introduction to the Reflexive Thematic Analysis Reporting Guidelines (RTARG)

BACKGROUND

Reflexive thematic analysis is widely used in qualitative research published in Palliative Medicine, and in the broader field of health research. However, this approach is often not used well. Common problems in published reflexive thematic analysis in general include assuming thematic analysis is a singular approach, rather than a family of methods, confusing themes and topics, and treating and reporting reflexive thematic analysis as if it is atheoretical.

PURPOSE

We reviewed 20 papers published in Palliative Medicine between 2014 and 2022 that cited Braun and Clarke, identified using the search term 'thematic analysis' and the default 'relevance' setting on the journal webpage. The aim of the review was to identify common problems and instances of good practice. Problems centred around a lack of methodological coherence, and a lack of reflexive openness, clarity and detail in reporting. We considered contributors to these common problems, including the use of reporting checklists that are not coherent with the values of reflexive thematic analysis. To support qualitative researchers in producing coherent and reflexively open reports of reflexive thematic analysis we have developed the Reflexive Thematic Analysis Reporting Guidelines (the RTARG; in Supplemental Materials) informed by this review, other reviews we have done and our values and experience as qualitative researchers. The RTARG is also intended for use by peer reviewers to encourage methodologically coherent reviewing.

KEY LEARNING POINTS

Methodological incoherence and a lack of transparency are common problems in reflexive thematic analysis research published in Palliative Medicine. Coherence can be facilitated by researchers and reviewers striving to be knowing - thoughtful, deliberative, reflexive and theoretically aware - practitioners and appraisers of reflexive thematic analysis and developing an understanding of the diversity within the thematic analysis family of methods.

Is thematic analysis used well in health psychology? A critical review of published research, with recommendations for quality practice and reporting

Despite the persistent dominance of a 'scientific psychology' paradigm in health psychology, the use of qualitative research continues to grow. Qualitative approaches are often based on fundamentally different values from (post)positivistempiricism, raising important considerations for quality, and whether qualitative work adheres to, and is judged by, appropriate publication standards. Thematic analysis (TA) has become a particularly popular method in qualitative health psychology, but poor practice is widespread. To support high quality, methodologically coherent TA practice and reporting, we critically reviewed 100 systematically selected papers reporting TA, published in five prominent health psychology journals. Our review assessed reported practice, and considered this in relation to methodological and quality recommendations. We identified 10 common areas of problematic practice in the reviewed papers, the majority citing reflexive TA. Considering the role of three 'arbiters of quality' in a peer review publication system - authors, reviewers, and editors - we developed 20 recommendations for authors, to support them in conducting and reporting high quality TA research, with associated questions for reviewers and editors to consider when evaluating TA manuscripts for publication. We end with considerations for facilitating better qualitative research, and enriching the understandings and knowledge base from which health psychology is practiced.

Identifying Frames of the COVID-19 Infodemic: Thematic Analysis of Misinformation Stories Across Media

Background

The word "infodemic" refers to the deluge of false information about an event, and it is a global challenge for today's society. The sheer volume of misinformation circulating during the COVID-19 pandemic has been harmful to people around the world. Therefore, it is important to study different aspects of misinformation related to the pandemic.

Objective

This paper aimed to identify the main subthemes related to COVID-19 misinformation on various platforms, from traditional outlets to social media. This paper aimed to place these subthemes into categories, track the changes, and explore patterns in prevalence, over time, across different platforms and contexts.

Methods

From a theoretical perspective, this research was rooted in framing theory; it also employed thematic analysis to identify the main themes and subthemes related to COVID-19 misinformation. The data were collected from 8 fact-checking websites that formed a sample of 127 pieces of false COVID-19 news published from January 1, 2020 to March 30, 2020.

Results

The findings revealed 4 main themes (attribution, impact, protection and solutions, and politics) and 19 unique subthemes within those themes related to COVID-19 misinformation. Governmental and political organizations (institutional level) and administrators and politicians (individual level) were the 2 most frequent subthemes, followed by origination and source, home remedies, fake statistics, treatments, drugs, and pseudoscience, among others. Results indicate that the prevalence of misinformation subthemes had altered over time between January 2020 and March 2020. For instance, false stories about the origin and source of the virus were frequent initially (January). Misinformation regarding home remedies became a prominent subtheme in the middle (February), while false information related to government organizations and politicians became popular later (March). Although conspiracy theory web pages and social media outlets were the primary sources of misinformation, surprisingly, results revealed trusted platforms such as official government outlets and news organizations were also avenues for creating COVID-19 misinformation.

Conclusions

The identified themes in this study reflect some of the information attitudes and behaviors, such as denial, uncertainty, consequences, and solution-seeking, that provided rich information grounds to create different types of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some themes also indicate that the application of effective communication strategies and the creation of timely content were used to persuade human minds with false stories in different phases of the crisis. The findings of this study can be beneficial for communication officers, information professionals, and policy makers to combat misinformation in future global health crises or related events.

Using Twitter to Understand the COVID-19 Experiences of People With Dementia: Infodemiology Study

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people with dementia in numerous ways. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research on the COVID-19 impact on people with dementia and their care partners.

Objective

Using Twitter, the purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of COVID-19 for people with dementia and their care partners.

Methods

We collected tweets on COVID-19 and dementia using the GetOldTweets application in Python from February 15 to September 7, 2020. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the tweets.

Results

From the 5063 tweets analyzed with line-by-line coding, we identified 4 main themes including (1) separation and loss; (2) COVID-19 confusion, despair, and abandonment; (3) stress and exhaustion exacerbation; and (4) unpaid sacrifices by formal care providers.

Conclusions

There is an imminent need for governments to rethink using a one-size-fits-all response to COVID-19 policy and use a collaborative approach to support people with dementia. Collaboration and more evidence-informed research are essential to reducing COVID-19 mortality and improving the quality of life for people with dementia and their care partners.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Disordered Eating Behavior: Qualitative Analysis of Social Media Posts

BACKGROUND

A growing body of evidence is suggesting a significant association between the COVID-19 pandemic and population-level mental health. Study findings suggest that individuals with a lifetime history of disordered eating behavior may be negatively affected by COVID-19-related anxiety, and prevention measures may disrupt daily functioning and limit access to treatment. However, data describing the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on disordered eating behaviors are limited, and most findings focus on individuals in treatment settings.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to characterize the experiences of Reddit users worldwide who post in eating disorder (ED)-related discussion forums describing the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on their overall mental health and disordered eating behavior.

METHODS

Data were collected from popular subreddits acknowledging EDs as their primary discussion topic. Unique discussion posts dated from January 1 to May 31, 2020 that referenced the COVID-19 pandemic were extracted and evaluated using inductive, thematic data analysis.

RESULTS

Six primary themes were identified: change in ED symptoms, change in exercise routine, impact of quarantine on daily life, emotional well-being, help-seeking behavior, and associated risks and health outcomes. The majority of users reported that the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health prevention measures negatively impacted their psychiatric health and contributed to increased disordered eating behaviors. Feelings of isolation, frustration, and anxiety were common. Many individuals used Reddit forums to share personal experiences, seek advice, and offer shared accountability.

CONCLUSIONS

Reddit discussion forums have provided a therapeutic community for individuals to share experiences and provide support for peers with ED during a period of increased psychiatric distress. Future research is needed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on disordered eating behavior and to evaluate the role of social media discussion forums in mental health treatment, especially during periods of limited treatment access.

Harnessing Telemedicine for the Provision of Health Care: Bibliometric and Scientometric Analysis

Background

In recent decades, advances in information technology have given new momentum to telemedicine research. These advances in telemedicine range from individual to population levels, allowing the exchange of patient information for diagnosis and management of health problems, primary care prevention, and education of physicians via distance learning.

Objective

This scientometric investigation aims to examine collaborative research networks, dominant research themes and disciplines, and seminal research studies that have contributed most to the field of telemedicine. This information is vital for scientists, institutions, and policy stakeholders to evaluate research areas where more infrastructural or scholarly contributions are required.

Methods

For analyses, we used CiteSpace (version 4.0 R5; Drexel University), which is a Java-based software that allows scientometric analysis, especially visualization of collaborative networks and research themes in a specific field.

Results

We found that scholarly activity has experienced a significant increase in the last decade. Most important works were conducted by institutions located in high-income countries. A discipline-specific shift from radiology to telestroke, teledermatology, telepsychiatry, and primary care was observed. The most important innovations that yielded a collaborative influence were reported in the following medical disciplines, in descending order: public environmental and occupational health, psychiatry, pediatrics, health policy and services, nursing, rehabilitation, radiology, pharmacology, surgery, respiratory medicine, neurosciences, obstetrics, and geriatrics.

Conclusions

Despite a continuous rise in scholarly activity in telemedicine, we noticed several gaps in the literature. For instance, all the primary and secondary research central to telemedicine was conducted in the context of high-income countries, including the evidence synthesis approaches that pertained to implementation aspects of telemedicine. Furthermore, the research landscape and implementation of telemedicine infrastructure are expected to see exponential progress during and after the COVID-19 era.

Trend Linking of Multiple System Atrophy: A Scientometric Study

AIM

This study aims to add to previous analyses and describe the trends in MSA research from three decades, 1988 to 2018, through assessing the medical literature. Additionally, a collaboration network was analyzed to determine the most common process in development of MSA research.

METHODS

This research was a descriptive survey with a scientometric approach. The data for the present study were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) and search strategy based on Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) term. In this research, the data analysis was performed based on collaboration network and theme analysis.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

In this study, 6530 articles were retrieved from 1988 to 2018 divided in three different periods. These articles were drafted by 39,184 authors, 3,865 organizations, 80 countries, and 832 journals. Further, 287 articles with more than 100 citations were found. The global citation score (GCS) was 250,834 times and the average citations per article was 3,841 times. The MSA research field demonstrated a diagram for a chronological period to assess the most relevant themes. Each diagram depended on the sum of documents linked to each research topic. Scientometric analysis of the field of MSA can be regarded as a roadmap for future research and policymaking in this important area.

Post-processing T-patterns Using External Tools From a Mixed Method Perspective

Researchers of behavioral science often work with time-aligned annotation data based on video and/or audio recordings. Various platforms are available to process these data, offering various kinds and ways of data analysis. It often happens that one would wish to use one platform for a certain kind of analysis, and another platform for another kind. It may also happen that one would keep the results of the first analysis and continue processing the data using another platform—all as a chain of analyses on the way to discovery. When it comes to T-pattern analysis, the task of further analyzing already identified patterns across platforms requires a general framework within which virtually any kind of data can be processed in a cross platform environment: that of a database. Data (including patterns) from one platform are then imported into this database, where these patterns are further processed to uncover further properties, then the patterns can be exported to another platform, including the one the data originated from. This contribution aims at introducing a new methodology and a tool implemented as a web-based service for these purposes.

Performance and Home Advantage in Handball

The main objective of this research was to delve into the concept of playing handball at home from a classical perspective of previous studies. The emergence of regularities or certain patterns of play can be explained by the location of matches. Through an observational methodology and a nomothetic, monitoring and multidimensional design, thirty-nine European elite handball matches were selected (N = 39). A mixed 'ad hoc' registration system was designed. Records were made of the last three minutes of home and visiting games of which images were available. Two observers with observational methodology experience participated in the study. The quality of the records was dealt with in an intraobserver and interobserver way. Two different techniques were applied for the treatment of the data: a) detection of behavioral patterns by Theme (p < .005) (Magnusson, 2000) and b) Chaid decision trees (p < .05) using SPSSv.24. The results showed the existence of T-patterns according to the location (different T-patterns: home: 1085; away: 1242) of the matches. The categories most involved in effective launches were unveiled. On the other hand, the Chaid model also showed the effect of location (p < .001): home-win (node 9) (n = 149, 69%), away-win (node 10) (n = 15, 16%) in handball. Crossing analysis offered enriched interpretations to advance in the home advantage concept. From this study, guidelines can be drawn that may help handball coaches to build training tasks as differences in behavioral patterns between home or away play in handball were identified. Thus, designing tasks considering a match location has requires specificity.

Detection and Selection of Behavioral Patterns Using Theme: A Concrete Example in Grassroots Soccer

Observational methodology provides a rigorous yet flexible framework for capturing behaviors over time to allow for the performance of subsequent diachronic analyses of the data captured. Theme is a specialized software program that detects hidden temporal behavioral patterns (T-patterns) within data sets. It is increasingly being used to analyze performance in soccer and other sports. The aim of this study was to show how to select and interpret T-patterns generated by the application of three “quantitative” sort options in Theme and three “qualitative” filters established by the researchers. These will be used to investigate whether 7-a-side (F7) or 8-a-side (F8) soccer is best suited to the learning and skills development needs of 7- and 8-year-old male soccer players. The information contained in the T-patterns generated allowed us to characterize patterns of play in children in this age group. For both formats, we detected technical-tactical behaviors showing that children of this age have difficulty with first-touch actions and controlling the ball after a throw-in. We also found that ball control followed by a pass or a shot at the goal are common in the central corridor of the pitch. Further, depth of play is achieved by ball control, followed by dribbling and a pass or shot. In F8, we saw that depth of play was achieved through ball control, followed by dribbling and passing of one or more opponents leading to a pass or shot. However, in F7, we saw that players succeeded in advancing from their goal area to the rival goal area through a sequence of actions.

Commentary: Writing and Evaluating Qualitative Research Reports

OBJECTIVE

To provide an overview of qualitative methods, particularly for reviewers and authors who may be less familiar with qualitative research.

METHODS

A question and answer format is used to address considerations for writing and evaluating qualitative research.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

When producing qualitative research, individuals are encouraged to address the qualitative research considerations raised and to explicitly identify the systematic strategies used to ensure rigor in study design and methods, analysis, and presentation of findings. Increasing capacity for review and publication of qualitative research within pediatric psychology will advance the field's ability to gain a better understanding of the specific needs of pediatric populations, tailor interventions more effectively, and promote optimal health.

Recent advances in the analysis of behavioural organization and interpretation as indicators of animal welfare

While the incorporation of mathematical and engineering methods has greatly advanced in other areas of the life sciences, they have been under-utilized in the field of animal welfare. Exceptions are beginning to emerge and share a common motivation to quantify 'hidden' aspects in the structure of the behaviour of an individual, or group of animals. Such analyses have the potential to quantify behavioural markers of pain and stress and quantify abnormal behaviour objectively. This review seeks to explore the scope of such analytical methods as behavioural indicators of welfare. We outline four classes of analyses that can be used to quantify aspects of behavioural organization. The underlying principles, possible applications and limitations are described for: fractal analysis, temporal methods, social network analysis, and agent-based modelling and simulation. We hope to encourage further application of analyses of behavioural organization by highlighting potential applications in the assessment of animal welfare, and increasing awareness of the scope for the development of new mathematical methods in this area.