Generating qualitative data by design: the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health qualitative data collection.

Objectives and importance of study: The purpose of this study was to illustrate how qualitative free-text comments, collected within the context of a health survey, represent a rich data source for understanding specific phenomena. Study type: Work conducted with data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) was used to demonstrate the breadth and depth of qualitative information that can be collected. The ALSWH has been collecting data on women’s health since 1996, and represents a unique opportunity for understanding lived experiences across the lifecourse. Methods: A multiple case study design was used to demonstrate the techniques that researchers have used to manage free-text qualitative comments collected by the ALSWH. Results and conclusions: Eleven projects conducted using free-text comments are discussed according to the method of analysis. These methods include coding (both inductively and deductively), longitudinal analyses and software-based analyses. This work shows that free-text comments are a data resource in their own right, and have the potential to provide rich and valuable information about a wide variety of topics