Influence of qualitative research on women's health screening guidelines.
OBJECTIVE
Considerable time and resources are allocated to carry out qualitative research. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the availability of qualitative research on women's health screening and assess its influence on screening practice guidelines in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.


METHODS
Medline, CINHAL, and WEB of Science databases were used to identify the availability of qualitative research conducted in the past 15 years on 3 different women's health screening topics: cervical cancer screening, breast cancer screening, and prenatal first-trimester screening. Key national practice guidelines on women's health screening were selected using the National Guideline Clearinghouse web site. Bibliometric analysis was used to determine the frequency of qualitative references cited in the guidelines.


RESULTS
A total of 272 qualitative research papers on women's health screening was identified: 109 on cervical cancer screening, 104 on breast cancer screening, and 59 on prenatal first-trimester screening. The qualitative studies focused on health care provider perspectives as well as ethical, ethnographic, psychological, and social issues surrounding screening. Fifteen national clinical practice guidelines on women's health screening were identified. A total of 943 references was cited, only 2 of which comprised of qualitative research cited by only 1 clinical practice guideline.


CONCLUSIONS
Although there is considerable qualitative research that has been carried out on women's health screening, its incorporation into clinical practice guidelines is minimal. Further exploration of the disconnect between the two is important for enhancing knowledge translation of qualitative research within clinical practice.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Anna Maria
AM
Abadir
Victorian Order of Nurses of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Ariella
A
Lang
McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Talia
T
Klein
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: haim.abenhaim@gmail.com.
Haim Arie
HA
Abenhaim
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D002170:Canada; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006287:Health Planning Guidelines; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D036301:Qualitative Research; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D016387:Women's Health
practice guideline; qualitative research; women's health