Our findings can be used to inform future studies on community pharmacy-based screening programmes. The Author(s) declare(s) that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose. This research was funded by an MSc programme at the University of Aberdeen (Health Services and Public Health Research),

with additional financial support from a fellowship awarded jointly by the Medical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, UK, to Dr Terry Porteous (Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral SCH727965 mouse Fellowship). We are grateful to Cynthia Fraser (Information Specialist) at the University of Aberdeen for her advice in the development of the search strategy. We thank Graham Mowatt (University of Aberdeen) and Michelle Fiander, Trials Search Coordinator/Information

Specialist (University of Ottawa, Canada) for their help with the search on EPOC databases. Table S1 Characteristics of included studies (n = 50) Table S2 Quality assessment table for randomised controlled trial and cluster randomised studies[15] (n = 3 out of 50 included studies) Figure S1a Chart of quality assessment of comparative studies (n = 5) Figure S1b Chart of quality assessment of uncontrolled studies (n = 42) “
“This is the first of two papers which explore see more the use of mixed-methods research in pharmacy practice. In an era of evidence-based medicine and policy, high-quality research evidence is essential for the development of effective pharmacist-led services. Over the Tyrosine-protein kinase BLK past decade, the use of mixed-methods research has become increasingly common in healthcare, although to date its use has been relatively limited in pharmacy practice research.

In this article, the basic concepts of mixed-methods research including its definition, typologies and advantages in relation to pharmacy practice research are discussed. Mixed-methods research brings together qualitative and quantitative methodologies within a single study to answer or understand a research problem. There are a number of mixed-methods designs available, but the selection of an appropriate design must always be dictated by the research question. Importantly, mixed-methods research should not be seen as a ‘tool’ to collect qualitative and quantitative data, rather there should be some degree of ‘integration’ between the two data sets. If conducted appropriately, mixed-methods research has the potential to generate quality research evidence by combining strengths and overcoming the respective limitations of qualitative and quantitative methodologies.