N sub-Saharan AfricaYesSomewhatNo?For mixed-methods studies, is there sufficient emphasis on the qualitative component? Are the study context and objectives clearly described?Study setting adequately described? Rationale for conducting the study GS-5816 supplier stated and justified? Is there evidence of researcher reflexivity????Researcher’s role, potential bias and Deslorelin web influence on respondents examined in formulation of questions, data collection and data analysis? Is the recruitment strategy appropriate to the study aims? Researcher explained how study informants were selected? Discussion around recruitment, i.e. why some people chose not to take part? Is the method of data collection clearly described and appropriate for the research question? Data collection method explicitly stated? Saturation of data discussed? Is the data analysis sufficiently rigorous?????Analytic process described in sufficient detail? If thematic analysis is used, is it clear how themes/categories were derived? Are contradictory data taken into account? Are conclusions supported by sufficient evidence??????Did the data provide sufficient depth, detail and richness? The researcher discussed credibility of their findings (triangulation, respondent validation, more than one analyst)?*Screening question, captured in inclusion criteria.on how informants’ responses or subsequent data analysis may have been influenced by the role of the research team. These observations are not unique to our literature review. As pointed out by Glenton et al. (2013) in a Cochrane qualitative literature review, qualitative articles published in journals tend to provide relatively `thin’ data and are less likely to include a variety of data gathering methods. Glenton and others also reported lack of researcher reflexivity as a common finding when qualitative studies are being appraised. Longitudinal, ethnographic research may be better suited to qualitative studies that examine health interventions (Pawson et al. 2005, Glenton et al. 2013, Dawson et al. 2014), but such research is more time and resource demanding and often too extensive to be published in widely circulated health research journals. Thus, all the studies meeting the original inclusion criteria were included in the subsequent analysis regardless of the quality score assigned. Although some studies were deemed to be of lower methodological quality, the insights from stakeholders they presented nevertheless contributed to the richness of data and were informative for data synthesis. This is one of the approaches commonly adopted in qualitative reviews, especially when there are a limited number of studies available (Pawson et al. 2005, Hannes 2011).Data abstractionFollowing Thomas and Harden (2008), a thematic synthesis approach was used to compile the data. In following this approach, it is important to note the objective of this review ?to inform the study of task shifting for work being developed in Kenya. Given this aim, we were interested in `key concepts’ (Campbell et al. 2003) that might illuminate the characteristics of effective task-shifting programmes while highlighting the major barriers to implementation. Of course, we also needed to remain true to the texts we examined, all of the noted facets of implementation and the character of the reformed systems studied. In this way, although our aims were pragmatic and directed towards the needs of our future project, we were also aiming to provide as much `thick description’ as possible.N sub-Saharan AfricaYesSomewhatNo?For mixed-methods studies, is there sufficient emphasis on the qualitative component? Are the study context and objectives clearly described?Study setting adequately described? Rationale for conducting the study stated and justified? Is there evidence of researcher reflexivity????Researcher’s role, potential bias and influence on respondents examined in formulation of questions, data collection and data analysis? Is the recruitment strategy appropriate to the study aims? Researcher explained how study informants were selected? Discussion around recruitment, i.e. why some people chose not to take part? Is the method of data collection clearly described and appropriate for the research question? Data collection method explicitly stated? Saturation of data discussed? Is the data analysis sufficiently rigorous?????Analytic process described in sufficient detail? If thematic analysis is used, is it clear how themes/categories were derived? Are contradictory data taken into account? Are conclusions supported by sufficient evidence??????Did the data provide sufficient depth, detail and richness? The researcher discussed credibility of their findings (triangulation, respondent validation, more than one analyst)?*Screening question, captured in inclusion criteria.on how informants’ responses or subsequent data analysis may have been influenced by the role of the research team. These observations are not unique to our literature review. As pointed out by Glenton et al. (2013) in a Cochrane qualitative literature review, qualitative articles published in journals tend to provide relatively `thin’ data and are less likely to include a variety of data gathering methods. Glenton and others also reported lack of researcher reflexivity as a common finding when qualitative studies are being appraised. Longitudinal, ethnographic research may be better suited to qualitative studies that examine health interventions (Pawson et al. 2005, Glenton et al. 2013, Dawson et al. 2014), but such research is more time and resource demanding and often too extensive to be published in widely circulated health research journals. Thus, all the studies meeting the original inclusion criteria were included in the subsequent analysis regardless of the quality score assigned. Although some studies were deemed to be of lower methodological quality, the insights from stakeholders they presented nevertheless contributed to the richness of data and were informative for data synthesis. This is one of the approaches commonly adopted in qualitative reviews, especially when there are a limited number of studies available (Pawson et al. 2005, Hannes 2011).Data abstractionFollowing Thomas and Harden (2008), a thematic synthesis approach was used to compile the data. In following this approach, it is important to note the objective of this review ?to inform the study of task shifting for work being developed in Kenya. Given this aim, we were interested in `key concepts’ (Campbell et al. 2003) that might illuminate the characteristics of effective task-shifting programmes while highlighting the major barriers to implementation. Of course, we also needed to remain true to the texts we examined, all of the noted facets of implementation and the character of the reformed systems studied. In this way, although our aims were pragmatic and directed towards the needs of our future project, we were also aiming to provide as much `thick description’ as possible.
