Adding Qualitative Depth to Quantitative Data

Quantitative research is useful for accessing large numbers of par-
ticipants. Such an approach can address randomisation, control and
manipulation. In a mixed methods study on health care professionals’
attitudes towards health care professionals working with older people,
800 questionnaires were distributed. 360 completed questionnaires were
returned. One finding was that 73% of respondents reported that pro-
fessionals working solely with older people were deemed to have a lower
professional status than those who worked in high technology areas. A
variety of reasons were given. However, each questionnaire had an invi-
tation for participants to be interviewed by the researcher. 27 partici-
pants were interviewed. The interviews explored the findings which
revealed that professionals working with older people had high profes-
sional esteem. This and other findings added depth to the whole study
and served to inform replication of the project which addressed these
findings in the quantitative part of the new study