Table 3. Reporting of qualitative methods with patients and carers.

	Allard 2014 [16]	Arnold 2008 [24]	Potter 2013 [19]	Saketkoo 2014a [32]	Swigris 2005 [22]	Stamm 2009 [21]	Sanderson 2010a [30]	Tierney 2013 [34]	Tierney 2015 [35]	Turk 2008 [37]
Health area	Neurodisability	Fibromyalgia	Breast cancer	Interstitial lung disease	Interstitial lung disease	Osteoarthritis	Rheumatoid arthritis	Cleft palate, otitis media	Cleft palate, otitis media	Chronic pain
Theoretical framework	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R
Sampling
Approach	Purposive	Purposive	Purposive	N/R#	Purposive	Purposive	Purposive	Purposive	Purposive	N/R#
No. approached	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R
No. taking part	107	48	31	45	20	56	23	43	22	31
Age	Yes	Yes	Yes	YesΨ	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gender	Yes	Yes	Yes	YesΨ	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ethnicity	Yes	Yes	N/R	YesΨ	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	Yes
Socio economic status	Yes	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	N/R	Yes
Clinically relevant info	Yes	Yes	Yes	YesΨ	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Data collection
Focus groups	Yes	Yes	n/a	Yes	Yes	Yes	n/a	n/a	n/a	Yes
Interviews	Yes	n/a	Yes	n/a	Yes	n/a	Yes	Yes	Yes	n/a
Data analysis
A priori categories applied	Yes (plus emergent themes)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Thematic/content analysis*	Yes	n/a	n/a	Yes	Yes	Yes	n/a	Yes	Yes	Yes
Grounded theory**	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Framework approach***	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Data saturation mentioned	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Triangulation
Multiple coders/perspectives	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Data collection methods (both focus groups and interviews)	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Reflexivity	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

N/R = not reported, n/a = not applicable,

^# = Some indication of types of participant included but not the sampling approach used.

^Ψ Details reported in Saketkoo 2014b.

* Paper describes a generic thematic / content approach

** Paper describes analysis informed by Grounded Theory approaches, rather than an explicit Grounded Theory methodological framework

*** Paper refers to the use of framework as part of the analytical process