Interviews or focus groups? A comparative cost-effectiveness analysis

What is it about?

Individual interviews and focus groups each have their respective strengths, yet for many research questions, either could be an appropriate data collection method. We conducted a comparison of how much it cost to collect data to address a shared research question using both methods. We used thematic saturation (the point in data collection at which no new themes or concepts are emerging) as "common denominator" to facilitate the comparison.

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Why is it important?

In many fields that use qualitative research methods, focus groups are perceived to be the faster, cheaper data collection method. Our analysis showed that focus groups were faster, in terms of time required to collect enough data to reach different levels of data saturation, but that they came at an increased cost (up to 30% more) in most situations we tested.