Table 2.

Overview of four-step qualitative analytic process

Step	Analytic methods	Analytic products	Goal
Step 1	Qualitative data reduction	Review audiotaped interviews and summarize key findings by item, separately for each cognitive interview respondent	Interpret interview results and document evidence of problems or issues in each interview
Step 2	Problem identification and classification	Identify problems: For each interview, identify items with evident problems or issues	Determine items with issues to be coded, separately for each pretest interview
		Classify general types of problems or issues observed for each item in each interview	Characterize general types of problems evident within individual interviews
Step 3	Item-level synthesis	Catalog problems and issues observed across interviews	Determine items with consistent problems or issues and document types of problems and issues observed consistently, by item
Step 4	Residence and topic area comparisons	Compare counts of problem items and problem types by residence time and question topic area	Assess whether types of problems observed differed depending on residence time or question topic