Group interviews in primary care research: advancing the state of the art or ritualized research?

Background. Focus groups have become an important data gathering technique in primary care research. Objectives. This study provides an integrated review of recent articles that used focus groups as a data collection method to gather information from family physicians. Methods. Medline was searched for articles that used focus groups with family physicians in a North American setting during the 1990s. Articles that met this criteria were critically evaluated to determine who participated, the number of groups conducted, setting, length, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sampling technique and whether the groups were used as part of a larger study. Results. The twenty articles discussed herein revealed tremendous variation in how focus group research is conducted and reported. Conclusions. Focus group research is a popular form of qualitative research in primary care research. Journals reporting qualitative research should require that certain basic information be present, thereby advancing the state of the art and permitting readers to better evaluate these articles.