Health & Hope is a newsletter designed to educate and inspire Western Montanans on life-saving procedures, community events and services to keep you and your family healthy.
Issue link: https://blog.providence.org/i/1267568
III. Research Methods Expert Interviews To explore and distill expert messages on healthy housing, FrameWorks researchers conducted 14 one-on- one, one-hour phone interviews with researchers, academics, advocates, and policy experts working on these issues. #ese interviews were conducted in late 2014 and, with participants' permission, were recorded and subsequently transcribed for analysis. FrameWorks compiled the list of interviewees in collaboration with our project partners. #e list was designed to re$ect the diversity of disciplines and perspectives involved in work on healthy housing. Expert interviews consisted of a series of probing questions designed to capture expert understandings of the relationship between housing and health and well-being. In each interview, the interviewer went through a series of prompts and hypothetical scenarios designed to challenge experts to explain their research, experience, and perspectives; break down complicated relationships; and simplify concepts and "ndings from the "eld. Interviews were semi-structured in the sense that, in addition to preset questions, interviewers repeatedly asked for elaboration and clari"cation, and encouraged experts to expand upon those concepts that they identi"ed as particularly important. Analysis employed a basic grounded theory approach. Common themes were pulled from each interview and categorized, and negative cases were incorporated into the overall "ndings within each category, resulting in a re"ned set of themes that synthesized the substance of the interview data. #e analysis of this set of interviews resulted in the distillation of the expert perspective on healthy housing presented below. Cultural Models Interviews #e cultural models "ndings presented below are based on 30 in-depth interviews conducted with members of the American public in early 2015 in six locations: Boston, Massachusetts; Frederick, Maryland; San Jose, California; Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Palmdale, California. Cultural models interviews—one-on-one, semi-structured interviews lasting two to two-and-a-half hours —allow researchers to capture the broad sets of assumptions, or "cultural models," that participants use to make sense and meaning of a concept or topic area. #ese interviews are designed to elicit ways of thinking and talking about issues—in this case, ways of thinking about housing and health. Interviews covered initial associations with the term "housing" and explored thinking about housing, its connection to health, responsibility for ensuring healthy housing, and solutions. As the goal of these interviews was to examine the cultural models that participants use to make sense of these issues, it was important to give them the freedom to follow topics in the directions they deemed relevant. #erefore, the researchers approached each interview with a set of areas to be covered but le% the order in which these topics were addressed largely to the participant. All interviews were recorded and transcribed with written consent from participants. "A House, a Tent, a Box": Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understanding of Healthy Housing 9