ABSTRACT
Heaton's, J. review of qualitative secondary data analyses in social and health-care research has been the only one prior to this review in nursing. Heaton reported 14%, while in this current review, it was 2.5%. In 23 studies in the nursing review, however, the relationship between the secondary analyst and the primary study was not clear, so this number of no prior involvement could be higher. In both reviews there was a low percentage of secondary analyses where the secondary analyst collected new data to add to the primary dataset. Heaton identified 14% of the studies while in only 3% of the nursing studies were additional data collected to supplement the original study. From 1988 when the first analysis was published, the number of studies has doubled in each of the successive decades. Secondary analysts need to identify the typology of secondary qualitative analysis they used.
