This article explored issues arising from secondary analysis of qualitative data and analyzed the results of qualitative secondary analysis studies published in English, focusing on the methodological aspects.

A total of 29 studies were identified as qualitative secondary analysis studies, retrieving from the CINAHL database from 1982 to 3rd week of April 2003. These studies were analyzed by publication year, research method, and type of approach to secondary analysis.

The year that the qualitative secondary analysis study first published was 1992 and the number of the studies using secondary analysis has increased after the middle of 1990s. Grounded theory was the one the most frequently used(n=11, 37.9%) and phenomenological study the second most(n=6, 20.7%). In terms of types of approach, fifteen studies(51.7%) focused on the specific concepts that were not explored in the primary studies. Nine(31.0%) focused on the specific types of participants. Six were aimed to integrate contexts or perspectives to generate more general and abstract analysis of qualitative data.

The results of this article will stimulate methodological discussion of qualitative secondary analysis and activate qualitative studies using secondary analysis.