Author:

Keywords:

Grounded theory, meta-synthesis, Social Sciences, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences - Other Topics, 1110 Nursing, 1607 Social Work

Abstract:

Sexual dysfunction has been reported as one of the most adverse effects of cancer treatment. We therefore conducted a qualitative meta-synthesis to identify the way cancer patients’ sexuality changed after treatment. We chose to use a grounded theory method for this meta-synthesis, since the goal of grounded theory -portraying the range of influences on human action and the process of change in response to context- is well-suited for our goal. In principle, grounded theory offers a potentially suitable approach for the synthesis of primary studies. The advantage lies in the use of the method of sampling and analysis, where the emphasis is on an in-depth synthesis of theoretically selected studies rather than on a superficial synthesis of a large number of studies. Furthermore, the constant comparative method has the advantage of offering a clear set of procedures by which data may be analyzed. However, there are almost no examples of the use of grounded theory for synthesis. As a consequence, no guidelines are available on how to practically conduct such a synthesis. This presentation will show how we tackled several practical issues, for example the issue of how to apply theoretical sampling with studies, or how to perform the substantial, axial and selective coding. We will illustrate this with examples of how we build our theory about the cancer patients’ changed sexuality based on a synthesis of qualitative studies. This way, we will show how this innovative approach to qualitative data collection and analysis, can provide insights that are useful for both policy and practice.