Interesses e realizações referentes a pesquisas qualitativas têm sido crescentes no campo da saúde. Por conseqüência, tem havido maior demanda para os programas de pesquisa institucional e para publicações nos periódicos científicos. Frente a esta realidade, o presente artigo teve os seguintes objetivos: (a) apresentar definições de métodos qualitativos usados nas Ciências do Homem e nas Ciências da Saúde; (b) compará-los com os métodos quantitativos comuns das Ciências da Saúde; (c) ilustrar o assunto com os constructos mais importantes nesses campos metodológicos. São fornecidos critérios para julgar a pertinência do caminho percorrido pelos pesquisadores qualitativistas, desde a elaboração do plano de pesquisa até a interpretação dos resultados.

Qualitative Health research procedures that are not always applied, mainly in the analysis phase. Our objective is to present a systematized technique of step-by-step procedures for qualitative content analysis in the health field: Clinical-Qualitative Content Analysis. Our proposal consider that the qualitative research applied to the field of health, can acquire a perspective analogous to clinical practice and aims to interpret meanings expressed in reports through individual interviews or statements. This analysis takes part of the Clinical-Qualitative Method. The literature review was realized through: a book chapter, eight original articles and three methodological articles. The Clinical-qualitative Content Analysis technique comprises seven steps: 1) Editing material for analysis; 2) Floating reading; 3) Construction of the units of analysis; 4) Construction of codes of meaning; 5) General refining of the codes and the Construction of categories; 6) Discussion; 7) Validity. The clinical-qualitative analysis presupposes and involves a critical reflection on the processes carried out at each step. This reflection is an extremely rich process, if carried out collectively and in dialogue with other researchers with some proficiency in qualitative methods.

Content analysis comprises a set of techniques for organizing communication/information - a procedure used with qualitative data to make themes/topics and concepts/knowledge emerge. Communication content, considering human written or spoken discourse, is complex and presents valuable polysemous characteristic. With the dissemination of the clinical-qualitative method, the use of content analysis, considered an important methodological tool, raises theoretical-practical issues that need to be taken into consideration for its academically precise use. Thus, this article aimed to enumerate specific elements of the content analysis technique and discuss its suitability for the clinical-qualitative method that combines generic qualitative methods from Human and Cultural Sciences with the area of Health Sciences. Concepts were selected due to their pertinence, use and eventual adaptation to the method focused on.