Quantitative Or Qualitative Research

[Double93]

Would I be right in thinking that the type of research carried out in this study : https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-244X-13-112 is both quantitative and qualitative?? Qualitative, based on; questioning the participants on their pain and symptoms? and Quantitative, based on, questioning and measuring pain levels and their effects on daily activities in order to acquire numerical data and statistics?

Also, what type of study/method is used? Would i be right in thinking its a Correlational Study as epidemiologists are looking for a relationship between chronic pain and BD?

Thanks in advance

[Peter Pedant]

good question

from the paper cited:
In the descriptive analysis, the absolute frequency, mean, median and the dispersion measurements were calculated for the qualitative and quantitative variables.

so yes they think it is mixed

VAS looks objective - however I have my doubts
pain as you know is what the patient feels

remember that quantitative papers have stats like mean, median, standard deviation, regression coeffs

and qualitative have rank scoring - and other non parametric stats

Here
http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/35798140/Assessment_of_Chronic_Pain_Aspects_of_the.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ56TQJRTWSMTNPEA&Expires=1478995371&Signature=WNAhIDdfl0RCZTllLssTce3fk7w%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DAssessment_of_Chronic_Pain._I._Aspects_o.pdf

they say that they have used normal stats on VAS but they werent really meant to

interesting question
anyway good luck

[jennyjoan]

if it was just a wee basic question of quantity and quality

quantity = is an abundance of things

quality = is a better quality of things.

[jomifl]

Unless you are doing abstract maths there must be a qualitative element. Some might regard colours as qualitative but they can of course be quantified.

[Double93]

Would you say this was a Correlation Study or a Case Study? Or have i got it wrong and it is something else?

[Pigletion]

Based on the title of the article, I would say it is a cross-sectional study. This type of study looks at prevalence, frequency and/or distribution of a particular variable in a population.

From article //The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of pain experienced by bipolar depressed patients treated by psychiatrists in their regular clinical practice, and to identify possible factors associated with the presence of pain in these patients.//
//In the descriptive analysis, the absolute frequency, mean, median and the dispersion measurements were calculated for the qualitative and quantitative variables. The prevalence (± 95% CI) of pain was calculated, and the crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were used to analyze the factors associated with pain.//

I would research the different types of epidemiological studies to draw your own conclusion. Correlation studies in this field typically deal with populations, rather than individuals (as you have here).

[Peter Pedant]

No I think it is a case series

they accessed amuch larger database and looked at a preselected series

case series I think

It is not very good - they get depressed people
and asked you;re in pain arent you ?
( yeah )
and its really really bad ( yeah )

and you cant actually conclude an awful lot other than in a large series the subselected a subset with great pain ......