The Use of Qualitative Research in Large Quantitative Studies: Capturing the Subtleties

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how qualitative data collection often informs large quantitative studies and vice versa. Data for this study were drawn from The South Florida Health Survey, a 4-year mixed methods study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The study sought to examine prescription drug misuse and diversion (the transfer of a prescription drug from a lawful to an unlawful channel of distribution or use) from six subpopulations in South Florida (total sample N=1630). An analysis of one-time, structured quantitative interviews with opioid abusers from this large scale project (n=791) showed that younger users (ages 18-24) displayed significantly higher odds of injecting prescription pills compared to older users. Moreover, this age group also had significantly higher odds of engaging in several HIV risk behaviors including re-using needles and re-using unsterile needles.