An appraisal of qualitative articles on cardiovascular disease in Persian-language scientific journals

Aim. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating qualitative articles on cardiovascular diseases published in Persian-language journals.
Background. Qualitative research contributes to the scientific literature of many disciplines by interpreting and producing theories related to social interactions and individual experiences in natural rather than experimental situations.
Method. In this cross-sectional study, databases including Magiran, SID, and Google Scholar were investigated to search for Persian articles on cardiovascular disease. The papers were selected using the keywords and according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria from among papers published between 2000 and 2017. The appraisal instrument comprised of a researcher-made checklist that was developed based on the content of the book, “Nursing Research Implementation, Critique and Application” written by Burns and Grove.
Findings. The 19 eligible articles included in the present study involved qualitative investigations on issues related to heart disease in various aspects. In terms of quality, 68 and 31 percent of the papers were evaluated as having moderate and good quality, respectively. In a more detailed assessment, the philosophical infrastructure criterion was given a lower score.
Conclusion. Overall, this study indicates that qualitative studies published in Persian language journals on cardiovascular disease have an appropriate quality. Because qualitative research can be well applied in nursing and since it stands as required knowledge for nurses, it seems that a more detailed review of manuscripts by journal editors using checklists and via specialized reviewers can enhance the quality of the published papers.