1 Why use qualitative interviews?

Qualitative interviews are a conversation between a researcher and an interviewee. They are a useful method for finding out about people’s experiences or their views and can be used in a variety of situations to explore lots of different topics. The one-to-one nature of an interview makes it a good way to explore topics that might be personal or sensitive.

In qualitative interviews, researchers can adapt their questions to suit each interviewee because the questions don’t have to be asked using the exact same words each time. This flexibility in questioning means researchers can also use qualitative interviews to explore areas where each individual interviewee has something interesting to say.

For example, in discussing contraceptive experiences, Reproductive Bodylore peer researchers asked people who had experience of taking daily contraceptives whether they had ways for remembering to take their contraceptive. However, for interviewees who used longer-acting contraceptives researchers asked whether they had methods for remembering to schedule medical appointments related to those.