Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Researchers collecting surveys or census data in demographic surveillance systems gain substantially from nesting qualitative studies within these projects. This paper outlines a particular type of mixed-method research—sampling respondents for semi-structured interviews from survey or census lists. Quantitative data available on the larger population enables the selection of representative (or purposeful) qualitative samples and generalizable results. While substantive findings may be similar to other qualitative methods, inference is potentially more robust due to knowledge of similarities and differences between qualitative respondents and the larger population. The qualitative project does not just provide insight for improving quantitative analyses and future measures; the available quantitative data also increase possible sampling strategies and provides background on respondents for the qualitative project. This paper provides examples from two nested semi-structured interview projects, one in Malawi and one in South Africa, to show how nested qualitative research addresses a number of quantitative researchers’ reservations about qualitative methodologies, while providing better grounding for both quantitative and qualitative findings.