COMBINING QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE APPROACHES - RESEARCHING HIV-RELATED RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG DRUG INJECTORS

Research into complex social behaviours, like injecting drug use, rare ly combines quantitative and qualitative techniques. Qualitative resea rchers have tended to show a reluctance to become familiar with the te rminology and practice of quantitative methods, whereas quantitative r esearchers have been mistrustful of data not numerically codified. Dat a from two independent studies on the HN-related risk behaviours of in jecting drug users in Glasgow show the possible benefits of integratin g the two methodologies. Structural equation modeling (SEM) on a large quantitative data set indicated that female injectors were more likel y to share unsterile injecting equipment although they had greater kno wledge about HIV transmission than males. Qualitatively elicited data were able to elucidate the social processes creating and sustaining ri sk behaviours reported by injectors.