Table 3 Summary of papers included: Qualitative studies
First author, year & reference | Country | Participants defined, (age range/mean), gender | No. of participants | Type of data # | Sources potential bias & limitations | Quality review~ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Maycock (2005) [36] | Australia | Used or had used AAS and dealers, men | 42 AAS users, 22 dealers | #Qualitative: Participant observation (147), interviews include longitudinal (10 over 3 years) | Purposive sampling | ** |
Grogan (2006) [37] | UK | Use(d) AAS, 5 men, 6 women | 11 | #Qualitative: interviews | Small sample | *** |
Skårberg (2008) [38] | Sweden | Addiction clinic patients who use(d) AAS, 4 men, 2 women | 6 | Qualitative interviews: case-study | Sought help for AAS use. Small sample | ** |
Kimergård (2014) [39] | England & Wales | AAS users and harm reduction service providers (mean = 34), men | 24 | Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | Bias towards those showing positive health behaviours | *** |
Kimergård (2014) [3] | England & Wales | Used or had used AAS, men | 24 | #Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | same study as above | *** |
Kimergård (2015) [22] | England & Wales | AAS users, men | 24 | #Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | same study as above | *** |
Van Hout (2015) [40] | UK | IPED users, men | 20 | #Qualitative: in-depth interviews | Privileged access recruitment^ | *** |
Dunn (2016) [41] | Australia | Used or had used AAS, 19 men and 2 women | 21 | #Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | Voucher for taking part; one region (non-rural), length of interviews varied | *** |
Griffiths (2016) [42] | Australia | Used or had used AAS, 24 men 2 women | 26 | #Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | – same study as above | *** |
Hanley Santos (2017) [43] | UK | AAS users, 21 men 1 woman | 22 | Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | Bias towards those showing positive health behaviours - £10 given | *** |
Tighe (2017) [44] | Australia | Specialist forum users, (none), unknown | 450 unique avatars | Qualitative: threads from 3 Online forums: 134 threads: 1716 posts | Australian sites yet people from other countries on forums | *** |
Greenway (2018) [45] | UK | AAS Users, male | 8 | Qualitative: interviews | Sample bias, one NSP | *** |