How far is mixed methods research in the

field of health policy and systems in Africa?:

A scoping review

By

Nathan E & Yitagesu H.

 Outline
• What does it mean the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense?
• How would this help us in our own research?
Which element of it and how ?
• What do you say about the writing itself?
What may improve?

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What is the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense? How
Why MMR ?
• Verifications to an increased demand of application of MM
approaches in the research context
– leading research institutions like NIH of US and MRC of UK
issued documents encouraging and offering guidance to
development of rigorous mixed methods protocols
– funders are being attracted by methodological approach (i.e.
MMR)
• But, scope and quality need to be discovered and improved

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What is the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense? How

• Authors appreciate the paradigm shift from pure

(qual.) or (quan.) approach to MMR but, the
scope and quality is in question in African Context
?

• Therefore, the authors explored scope and quality

of mixed methods research in the African context

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 What is the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense? How
Authors included designs containing both
Qual. and quan. with respect to
– research questions
– research designs
– techniques for collecting and analyzing
data
– results

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What is the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense? How ?
Scope
• According to the review, many organizations
are calling for application of MM in HPSR
– Out of 105 studies extracted , 60% of them
published after 2010
– Nearly 50% of them addressed health system (40%
Health Policy and 10% Health outcome )
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What is the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense? How ?

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What is the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense? How ?
• Authors appraised the quality of MMR
whether:
– a clear mixed methods research question had
been asked
– a clear mixed-methods design had been
described
– the specific quantitative and qualitative methods
applied were suitable to answer the research
question
– findings had been integrated and discussed

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What is the topic of discussion?
Does it make sense? How

• According to the review,

– majority of articles have shown suboptimal
quality which call for strengthening capacity
building in MM research

– recommended revision on Journals’ publication

guideline to accommodate MMR

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 How would this help you in your own
research? Which element of it and how?
• The paper provides us
– insights how paradigm is shifting from single method
to application of MMR
– how combining the two methodological approaches
is important to counteracting the weaknesses and
building on the strengths of the single quantitative
and qualitative approaches
– how to conduct reviews not only for this case but also
for other methodological approaches

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What do you say about the writing itself?
What may improve?

• The paper helps us to consider quality

judgment criteria but,
– needs clarity of the criteria used to assess quality
like “appropriate”, “integrate”

– do not consider strength of the evidence emerging

from the single studies

– most authors focused only for attention for fund

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Article

1. Allegri MD, Sieleunou I , Abiiro GA, Ridde

V.How far is mixed methods research in the
field of health policy and systems in Africa?A
scoping review. Health Policy and Planning.
2018; 33:3, 445-455.

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Acknowledgements

• AAU, SPH for arranging advanced qualitative

research methods the program

• Dr. Mirgissa K, for making us reflect this

interesting topic

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Comments
• Not, because funding, satisfaction, … but
– research questions
– design for answering our research questions ?
– paradigm= Positivist (objectivity, neutrality, ) …Neo-
positivist ( truth-has multiple facts)… Constructivist ??

• “We are not get close to truth”

• Can truth contradict ? No, but what ?...
• Which approach can make my “question” more vivid ?

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Comments
• “ A guy as a gang leader” Book to be read !
• Why the basic ethical principles of ethics be more than 4
(biomedical ethics) ? Why ?
• What is sciences for ? Can they accommodate many approaches
that may contribute to science ?
• Problems are to the community ? Does the problem owned by the
community ?
• Does social science has its own ethics ? What did a researcher do as
a result of the findings ? What a blessing it is !

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Comments

• AHARI ?

• What is going in the community ? What are

adolescents doing ? Postils, condoms, Viagras ?

• How providers are acting towards the a

patient/client ?

• Behavioral dimension of ethics ??

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Comments
March

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