[MUSIC] And then this video we would like to introduce to you some of the initial phases of conducting an interview study because it's all linked to how to prepare, how to do an interview study. So what will touch upon in the video is how to define the aim, how to prepare the interview and a little bit about how to conduct the interview and what we'll do in order to show you and illustrate these phases, is actually introduce you to some of the interview studies we conducted ourselves. So Anne Gerd, can you tell me about an interview study you participated in? >> Well, the one that immediately comes to mind is a study where we interviewed elderly patients living at home and if they relate, their use of medicines to their risk of falling. We did this study because we know that every third person over 65 years falls every year. Frequency increases with age and falls accounts for about 40% of injury deaths in the elderly population. So there are many reasons for this, including a combination of biological and environmental factors for instance, aging, difference diseases they have and also the medicines that they use. So the problem with falling is, of course, that the elderly might hurt themselves. They get a fracture of the hip bones or of the arms, might get hospitalized and might not be able to move home again or really become reliant on help. >> Okay, very interesting, and who were involved in sitting off your project? >> This project was a part of National Patient Safety Program in Norway and also into professional networks locally in the counties. >> Okay, I can also shortly introduce you to one of the interview studies we did in Copenhagen, and this was about how to use antibiotics in Eastern European countries. And I think many of us are aware that in general we are many that use too much antibiotics by now, and this is quite a threat due to antimicrobial resistance. >> Indeed. >> Yeah and then we actually had some collaboration going on with the European section of the WHO, when they are very interested in looking into some of these problems. So we set up this project with some countries who were interested in participating from Eastern Europe. And what we did is we carried out this interview study because we'd very much like to go behind what was going on, why do we use these many antibiotics? So it was very much about interviewing patients, pharmacists and doctors about their habits and how they use antibiotics in daily life and also about what are their knowledge about the antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance, what are their attitudes? This is another example of an interview study that you can conduct. >> Yeah >> Some of the first things you'd like to think about when doing an interview study is actually, after you know what is the problem, and you'd like to work with it, looking into the existing literature because this can help you specifying and defining your research aim. It can help you make your study more relevant and also more feasible, at least making it more concrete. So Anne Gerd, can you tell me about some of these, preparing phases and looking into the existing literature, how did you do that in your study? >> So absolutely, so we had a particular interest in the patient's perspective on medicine use and the experience they have of using, here comes a long word. [LAUGH] This so called 'fall-risk-increasing drugs' also named as FRIDs. So we did first, we did a literature search, and we were not able to find any studies investigating whether the elderly themselves linked these drugs to falling for instance, or to dizziness. And we were very much interested in to see how the elderly themselves adjusted their medicines use, for instance, if they adjusted the dose or the way they took the medicines. So to see that if there was a connection between the medicines and the falls. So the aim was therefore to look or explore rather ,how these home dwelling elderly, sort of living in their own homes use these drugs. And how they perceived if they could relate or see if there was a connection. >> Okay, so just to sum up, so where did you look for literature, which could help you in this process? >> So we looked, doing searches on the Internet like Medline and Embase and other research bases. We also looked into literature publiced in sort of more nursing sciences. We also looked at more reports nationally in Norway because falls has such a big impact. There are also strategy or white papers from the government that we looked into. >> Okay, that's quite similar to what we did in antibiotic study. So of course, read through some of the databases where you find scientific literature. We looked through, as you said, Embase and PubMed and so on. And we also googled, looking online for reports from health authorities. And maybe they had been investigating and there was knowledge to use it in our study. And then we did a third thing, we actually asked experts in the field. So we knew not too far from where we stay in our offices, there was a GP and a researcher who was an expert in use of antibiotics. So we called him and we paid him a visit and discussed, I mean, how to specify, define our aim. In contribution to that, I could also recommend because sometimes I mean, we're both researchers at institutions and have access to many of these databases. But in case you don't have this access there're communities, you can join and where you can get in contact with researchers and ask if they can provide you with their papers if you don't have access. And such a community, we could recommend is the one called ResearchGate There're possibilities, even though you don't have immediate access. >> Yes, and also with ResearchGate you can also ask specifically the researchers that have published a paper whether you can get if it's an open access a copy that you can get. >> Exactly, okay, so now you found some relevant material for your study. So how did you implement it? How did you use it in your project? >> So we used this material really to focus down on patients perspective and not to repeat what was already known in the literature so we ended up focusing on three questions in this study. The first one were, was have you experienced dizziness or false? And can you just explain to us or elaborate on what happened? The second one was, can you tell us which medicines you're taking and what information you have received from your physicians or others about it. And the third one was do you associate the use of medicines with dissonance or falls, and please explain. So we really spent time on focusing it down. But what about you? How did you unify relevant material for your antibiotic study? As I said, I mean, we both used scientific papers and reports, and then we went to visit this expert, and actually visiting the expert I think was maybe you know the channel which helped us the most. So what he recommended is specifying instead of, you know, looking at all antibiotics, just go for a specific type used for upper respiratory tract infections. And we followed his advice and I think it was pretty good because, first of all, this type of disease, upper respiratory tract infections are very common. So actually, it helped us recruiting people for the study. But secondly also because when having collected the data, it helped us comparing it because there was not like comparing apples and pears. I mean, the same type of antibiotics we were looking into, so it was much more consistent the data. But I also have an example. One of the papers we came across looking into the existing literature and actually what it said, is that people often self medicate with antibiotics so they don't go to the doctor for prescription. And very often this process, what they do is they look, when they have symptoms. They look in their cupboards at home and say do I have any antibiotics here, you know, leftovers from the previous time- yes, very common- and then start using those, and we hadn't thought about it. But then we added this question to the interview guide because we realized this is an important question to us. So this is some examples also how to use and implement existing knowledge. What else do you think is important to think about when doing an interview guide? Well, I think it's important to, that we are often blind to other perspectives or other angles to the topic that we're investigating, so we carry with us quite a bit of preconception. This is sort of fixed ideas of what the problem is so to really to view it from different angles is important.And we also had really as research between us researchers, a good deep discussion Every I'd say every after 2 to 3 interviews. We really went into the details, and then we could adjust the interview guides to sort of dig even deeper into the patient perspectives. >> Okay, so you adjusted your interview guides now and then for the next interviews. >> Yes, I know that varies between studies, but that's what we're sort of learning of the participants from as we went along. >> Mhm. >> Some of the things we did in our studies that instead of asking just in general So how do you use antibiotics and so on? Because we have experienced that is providing, sometimes a bit, you know, vague answers. And so such a broad question it's difficult for the interviewee to answer. So what we did for the pharmacies and the doctors, we asked them to tell us in details about three specific episodes. -Okay, Yeah,- in antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections during the last week. So they were fresh in mind. And then we elaborated on that and for the patients we recruited, we asked them about the last time they had an antibiotic for this type of disease and then try to go into detail about how they used it and what happened and so on. So we did. Yes. >> So we did a little bit the same. We sort of asked them specifically to give examples of dissonance and falls that they've had not to ask too general questions, but really give true live examples of the last time or in the last six months, or really to give not to sort of talk in general about friends, but really about themselves. >> Okay. And otherwise, what would be your advice if you're doing this for the first time, you have. >> [LAUGH] Well, I myself I love doing interviews, but my advice, if you're new to this, is really keep it simple. Think really hard about what your aim is. And what can the people you interview tell you that you don't know from before? Ask clear questions really be specific. Because people, even if you ask a question and if it's not clear, people would still answer it. So try and keep it simple. >> Okay, I agree. And they're just to sum up some of the main points we've been touching upon in this video. So, first of all, try to learn as much as you can about your topic before you start preparing your interview guide and that different channels different ways of doing this. Also be specific in your study. So what is the problem you're facing? And what is the problem you really want to resolve? Be very clear about it. The clearer it is, the higher chances you have of achieving it. And the third point touched upon by Anne Gerd is keep the interview simple and just learn it by doing. >> Thank you, Sussane. So keep it simple and have fun. [LAUGH] Good luck. [MUSIC]
