Establishing confidence in the output of qualitative research synthesis: the ConQual approach

Table 1 ConQual summary of findings example

Systematic review title: the patient experience of high technology medical imaging: a systematic review of the qualitative evidence
Population: persons who had undergone high technology medical imaging
Phenomena of interest: the meaningfulness of a patients experience of undergoing diagnostic imaging using high technology
Context: male and female adult patients presenting to a medical imaging department
Synthesised finding	Type of research	Dependability	Credibility	ConQual score
People undergoing imaging often expect a health issue to be found during their scan, which can then	Qualitative	Downgrade 1 level*	Downgrade 1 level**	Low

* Downgraded one level due to common dependability issues across the included primary studies (the majority of studies had no statement locating the researcher and no acknowledgement of their influence on the research).
** Downgraded one level due to a mix of unequivocal and equivocal findings.

ISSN: 1471-2288