Topic	Guide Questions/Description	Reported on (Page No.) and Comments
Domain 1: Research Team and Reflexivity
Personal characteristics
Interviewer/facilitator	Which author/s conducted the interview or focus group?	S.L.E. and L.M.S. distributed questionnaires
Credentials	What were the researcher’s credentials? eg, PhD, MD	L.M.S. — MD and S.L.E. — MPH (Title page)
Occupation	What was their occupation at the time of the study?	Resident and social sciences research professional
Sex	Was the researcher male or female?	Female
Experience and training	What experience or training did the researcher have?	Both facilitators have prior quantitative and qualitative research experience, S.L.E. has an MPH
Relationship with participants
Relationship established	Was a relationship established prior to study commencement?	No prior relationship was established
Participant knowledge of the interviewer	What did the participants know about the researcher? eg, personal goals, reasons for doing the research	The purpose of the research and research process were discussed during the consent process
Interviewer characteristics	What characteristics were reported about the interviewer/facilitator? eg, bias, assumptions, reasons and interests in the research topic?	No specific characteristics, biases, assumptions were reported
Domain 2: Study Design
Theoretical framework
Methodological orientation and theory	What methodological question was stated to underpin the study? eg, grounded theory, discourse analysis, ethnography, phenomenology, content analysis	Content analysis (page 7)
Participant selection
Sampling	How were participants selected? eg, purposive, convenience, consecutive, snowball	Convenience sample of those meeting inclusion criteria
Method of approach	How were participants approached? eg, face-to-face, telephone, mail, e-mail	Participants were approached in person (page 5)
Sample size	How many participants were in the study?	38 patients were initially included (page 8)
Nonparticipation	How many people refused to participate or dropped out? Reasons?	25 patients completed postoperative surveys. 13 patients did not come to their postoperative appointment (page 8)
Setting
Setting of data collection	Where were the data collected? eg, home, clinic, workplace	Baseline data were collected in the preoperative holding area. Follow-up data were collected in the clinic
Presence of nonparticipants	Was anyone else present besides the participants and researchers?	Occasionally patients’ family members were present in the preoperative holding area or in the clinic room during survey completion
Description of sample	What are the important characteristics of the sample? eg, demographic data, date	Patient demographics are listed in Table 1
Data collection
Interview guide	Were questions, prompts, guides provided by the authors? Was it pilot-tested?	Question prompts were provided by the authors. The question prompts were not pilot-tested
Repeat interviews	Were repeat interviews carried out? If yes, how many?	No repeat interviews were carried out
Audio/visual recording	Did the research use audio or visual recording to collect the data?	No audio or visual recording was used
Field notes	Were field notes made during and/or after the interview or focus group?	No field notes were made, analyzed data were based upon patient responses
Duration	What was the duration of the interviews and focus groups?	Survey completion took about 5–10 minutes; however, this was not timed
Data saturation	Was data saturation discussed?	Data saturation was discussed during the analysis period (page 5)
Transcripts returned	Were transcripts returned to participants for comment and/or correction?	Researchers did not use transcripts. Surveys were not returned to patients
Domain 3: Analysis and Findings
Data analysis
Number of data coders	How many data coders coded the data?	Two researchers coded the data (L.M.S. and R.N.K.) (page 7)
Description of the coding tree	Did authors provide a description of the coding tree?	A codebook was developed but was not provided (page 7)
Derivation of themes	Were themes identified in advance or derived from data?	Themes were identified from the data not in advance
Software	What software, if applicable, was used to manage the data?	Web-based and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)–compliant RedCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) was used to store data. Microsoft Excel was used to organize and code data
Participant checking	Did participants provide feedback on the findings?	Participants did not provide feedback
Reporting
Quotations presented	Were participant quotations presented to illustrate the themes/findings? Was each quotation identified? eg, participant number	Participant quotations were presented to illustrate themes, findings. Fig. 1. These quotations were kept anonymous
Data and findings consistent	Was there consistency between data presented and the findings?	Yes, there was consistency between presented data and our findings
Clarity of major themes	Were major themes clearly presented in the findings?	Major themes are clearly presented—Fig. 1 (page 8)
Clarity of minor themes	Is there a description of diverse cases or discussion of minor themes?	The researchers did not analyze minor themes