Commentary: Generalisability and validity in qualitative research.(Statistical Data Included)

Gardner and Chapple's study illustrates both the valuable insights that can be derived from qualitative work and the difficulties of demonstrating the credibility of such findings in medical journals. This study "sensitises" practitioners to possible barriers to referral, such as fear of hospitals and fatalism about the inevitability of morbidity with ageing. It also reminds us that in the real world symptoms are experienced and accounted for in consultations not as diseases with textbook clarity but as facets of a more diffuse illness experience. Rather than identifying the exact proportion of a population with particular health beliefs, qualitative research can unearth beliefs that may be …