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Table 3 Measures Undertaken to Ensure Study Rigour and Trustworthiness [25, 30]

From: Interventions maintaining eating Independence in nursing home residents: a multicentre qualitative study

- Aiming at evaluating whether the focus group interview guide was clear and understandable, one pilot focus group was performed by involving an NH not included in the final analysis; no changes of the interview questions were suggested;

- Aiming at ensuring that researchers and focus group participants were not friends and/or colleagues in previous or current work experiences, before data collection the degree of friendship was assessed. No previous relationships emerged;

- Aiming at preventing biases in interpretation, researchers bracketed their preconceptions regarding the phenomena under study by sharing their belief and knowledge;

- Aiming at ensuring triangulation, three researchers conducted the entire process of data analysis in an independent fashion and then they were supervised by two researchers. At each step, they shared and agreed upon the findings;

- Aiming at ensuring data dependability, the focus groups were numbered (e.g., focus groups Nursing Home 4 [NH 4]); thus, direct mention of the focus groups(s) who indicated each specific intervention was provided for each sub-theme;

- Aiming at providing findings credibility, direct quotes were reported by indicating also the appropriate focus group source (e.g., NH 5).

- Aiming at ensuring validity, sessions of member checking of the findings were performed by returning to participants of focus groups of four NHs. They have agreed with the final analysis, which was then considered valid.

  1. NH Nursing Home