Demystifying Content Analysis

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education Research
• Qualitative Data Analysis

Background:

• Pharmacy educators generate valuable data on student learning.
• Existing qualitative methods may not fully leverage this data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe content analysis as a qualitative data analysis method.
• To provide actionable instruction for pharmacy education researchers.

Main Methods:

• Review of content analysis methodologies.
• Description of manifest and latent content analysis.
• Discussion of reliability and validity threats and mitigation strategies.

Main Results:

• Content analysis is applicable to textual, visual, and audio data.
• Examples illustrate manifest and latent content analysis processes.
• Strategies to enhance reliability and validity are presented.

Conclusions:

• Content analysis offers a versatile approach for pharmacy education research.
• The review provides clarity for novice and experienced researchers.