Objective: The purposes of this review were to describe the quality of the development of qualitative research in in palliative care field, and to discuss the effectiveness of a descriptive checklist.
Methods: A review was conducted on Medline and Psychinfo databases. On the basis of their abstract, 71 papers found have been classified considering: publication year, kind of journal, paper type, data gathering method, sample size and declared theoretical background. A subsample of 8 of the previous papers was than selected. The methodological characteristics of the latter papers were evaluated based on a descriptive checklist.
Results: An increase over time in the number of qualitative studies is evident. Most of the papers are published on medical (43%) and nursing journals (26%). Psychological journals increased from 0% (before 1999) to 7% (after 1999). The 33% of studies used a sample size lower than 15; the 26% do not specify the sample size in the abstract. The theoretical background was also often not specified. Interview remains the most used data gathering method. The use of the descriptive checklist on the full text of the 8 papers shows how much the main methodological aspects have been satisfied in every considered study.
Conclusions: In palliative care the publication of qualitative studies increased during the nineties even if it doesn't always mean an increase in their methodological quality. The use of descriptive checklists can contribute in the raising of awareness of these limits and can in focusing on the whole picture of methodological components of qualitative research.