In your research team, discuss which research design will work best for your project. Which methods will you use to collect your data? Use the example below to help you create a table containing your research objective(s) and research question(s), and identify which data source(s) will be used to collect the data to meet the objectives of the research and answer your research questions.
Example
For the first objective, the study will analyse qualitative interviews, public discourse from newspapers and decrees, and objective measures of commitment to tuberculosis control in city X. Fifteen key informant interviews and several consensus panel discussions will be used to generate information on national and local policy processes and the translation of national and international guidelines to the behaviour of local health and social security systems in relation to MDR-TB control and ambulatory case-management. This stakeholder analysis will entail interviews with officials at four levels of government: national, region, district and city.
For the second objective, the study will employ: i) focus group discussions with health care providers structured by occupation (e.g. nurse, physician); ii) ethnographic assessments carried out by researchers/clinicians trained in ethnographic methods; and iii) structured and open-ended interviews with health care providers responsible for TB control at the district and city levels.
Methods for the third objective will include collection of qualitative and quantitative social data, as well as data on clinical and microbiological outcomes as part of a cohort study of patients and providers receiving a package of enablers and incentives termed DOT-FF.
For the fourth objective, the study will compare bacteriological and clinical data with quantitative and qualitative social data collected from patients and family members in order to identify biosocial determinants and effects of MDR-TB emergence and persistence. The study will obtain the life histories of patients with MDR-TB and TB on video, if possible.
Semi-structured, open-ended interviews will be conducted with patients and family members of patients to gain a better understanding of the impact of the persistence of MDR-TB in this setting. In addition, the quantitative methods described in the module on Research Methods and Data Management will help elucidate the biosocial factors potentially related to MDR- TB emergence and persistence (e.g. education, socioeconomic status, lack of social support, side-effects from second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs as well as HIV and other co-morbidities, such as substance use.)