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Qualitative content analysis as described in published literature shows conflicting opinions and unsolved issues regarding meaning and use of concepts, procedures and interpretation. This paper provides an overview of important concepts (manifest and latent content, unit of analysis, meaning unit, condensation, abstraction, content area, code, category and theme) related to qualitative content analysis; illustrates the use of concepts related to the research procedure; and proposes measures to achieve trustworthiness (credibility, dependability and transferability) throughout the steps of the research procedure. Interpretation in qualitative content analysis is discussed in light of Watzlawick et al.'s [Pragmatics of Human Communication. A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London] theory of communication.

Aim: The study aims to illuminate how one woman with severe dementia and so-called behavioural disturbances acts in relation to her care providers and how the care providers act in relation to her., Methods: Fourteen participant observations, including one woman with dementia and six care providers, were performed. A reflective dialogue focusing on the interaction between the woman and her care providers followed each observation. The tape-recorded observational notes and reflective dialogues were fixed as a text, which was subjected to a thematic content analysis., Findings: The main findings are that the interaction between a woman with severe dementia and "behavioural disturbances" and her care providers relates to privacy, identity, autonomy and security. The phenomena are intertwined and also in conflict with each other. Interaction is a complex dialectic process in which those who are engaged meet problems that can be solved and are involved in dilemmas that cannot be solved, only related to.

Nine semistructured interviews with attendant questions were conducted with the purpose of elucidating how healthy individuals describe suffering and life values in their reflections upon active euthanasia. In order to find the intended meaning in utterances, the interviews were interpreted step by step. The point of departure was the following question: What expressions of suffering and what expressions of life values can be found in the text? A connection was found between the interviewees' descriptions of suffering and life values in their reflections upon active euthanasia. The interviewees who considered close relations to be a value of life expressed suffering as dependence, compassion, violation, abandonment and feelings of guilt, while those to whom health was a value of life expressed suffering as torment, dependence, physical pain, feebleness, hopelessness and dying. Those who saw autonomy as a value of life expressed suffering as dependence and violation and those to whom doing good was a value of life expressed suffering as compassion. When organizing health care and deciding about the response to suffering, it seems important to strive for a response built upon the individual patient's description of suffering and life values.