The researchers in the team came from a range of disciplines
including medicine, nursing, sociology, psychology and social
anthropology. Two members of the team were of South Asian
origin. The range of disciplines and backgrounds enabled us to
reflect on the data from a number of perspectives. However, we
were also mindful of the influences that the researchers and the
research team bring to the research process (reflexivity) [31]. The
researchers who carried out the interviews and focus groups were
both women (GA and FH). Neither had a strong interest in
physical activity, which could have influenced the data collection.
The analysis was carried out by FH, GA and RJ who compared
and discussed the themes to ensure that bias was minimised at the
analysis stage. The themes were also discussed amongst the wider
research team. As is common in qualitative analysis, rigour was
not established by double coding, but by members of the analysis
team sharing and discussing transcripts and benefiting from a
range of perspectives [32]. FH did all initial coding on the focus
groups and GA was responsible for the key informant interviews.
RH read through all transcripts and co-ordinated the developing
coding frames. The analysis followed an interpretive approach
commonly used in the social sciences [33], which is informed by
theoretical insights from the beginning of the research (in this case
theories of ethnicity and other forms of ‘difference’) and retains a
reflexive stance to ensure that bias is minimised.