Quality appraisal of published qualitative dental, medical and health ‎researches in Iranian Persian language journals

BACKGROUND AND AIM: This study aimed to determine the rate of published qualitative research in the field of public health including dental researches in Iran and to appraise their quality.METHODS: A total of ۱۶۵ articles which published in ۱۷۰ Iranian Medical Journals between years ۲۰۰۰ and ۲۰۱۴ were found eligible to the study. ۴۸ papers were selected randomly. The papers were appraised by two calibrated reviewer using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) appraisal framework for qualitative research.RESULTS: Only ۲ studies (about ۴%) were on dental topics. About ۸۲% (۳۸-۴۸) studies had sufficient reporting regarding aims, study design, recruitment and data collection, data analysis, finding and implication of research. Only ۱۲ articles (۲۵%) had an adequate discussion of the study limitations. Overall, the assessment showed that ۲۷ papers (about ۵۶%) of studies were well conducted.CONCLUSION: Qualitative methods are underutilized on dentistry topics, and the quality of qualitative research on health topics in medical journals of Iran is mediocre.

Keywords:

qualitative research , critical appraisal , Oral Health , Iran