View/Open - ResearchSpace - University of KwaZulu-Natal

6.4 Limitations of the study
The use of snow ball sampling method was a major limitation to this study. This technique
allows the researcher to collect data based on referrals this means that, this study only gives
insight on infection control practices from organisations that were referred to the researcher
by the Aids care foundation. However, these findings only show the views of organisations
from townships and a single rural area therefore, these views cannot be generalized to
HBCOs in urban areas. Language was another limitation. Because the researcher was not
Zulu speaking and could not understand what was being discussed during focus group
discussions, she relied on the facilitator to find out how the discussions proceeded at the end.
Furthermore, because of a language barrier, the researcher also relied on the translated data
(from IsiZulu to English) to identify some gaps in the data collected thus this caused the
researcher to panic after finding gaps in the data this also lead to going back to the field to
recollect data however, this was overwhelming and costly. To make sure that language did
not compromise the quality of the data, all research questions were clearly stated indicating
all the follow up questions and the probes. The researcher also was present during the focus
group discussions to note the non-verbal cues and also to ask questions that needed to be
clarified.
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