Research Methods in Health

Praise for the first edition of Research Methods in Health: "Professor Bowling should be congratulated on her achievement in producing such a substantial overview of the topic." - International Journal for Quality in Health Care "...a brilliantly clear documentation of different philosophies, approaches and methods of research about health and health services. Laid out in an accessible and manageable way, it covers an enormous amount of material without sacrificing thoroughness...I would recommend it to a broad readership." - MIDIRS Midwifery Digest "Professor Ann Bowling is not only a superb and illuminating conference presenter - she also writes exceptional books. This major research textbook is as good as an introduction to the field as you are likely to find." - The International Journal of Social Psychiatry "...an easy to read book with excellent background information on the theory and practice of research. A summary of main points, key terms and recommended reading follows each chapter and there is a useful glossary of terms at the end of the book for quick reference...I particularly liked the checklists when undertaking literature reviews and writing research proposals." - British Journal of Health Care Management This new edition of Ann Bowling's well-known and highly respected text has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect key methodological developments in health research. It is a comprehensive, easy to read, guide to the range of methods used to study and evaluate health and health services. It describes the concepts and methods used by the main disciplines involved in health research, including: demography, epidemiology, health economics, psychology and sociology. The research methods described cover the assessment of health needs, morbidity and mortality trends and rates, costing health services, sampling for survey research, cross-sectional and longitudinal survey design, experimental methods and techniques of group assignment, questionnaire design, interviewing techniques, coding and analysis of quantitative data, methods and analysis of qualitative observational studies, and types of unstructured interviewing. With new material on topics such as cluster randomization, utility analyses, patients' preferences, and perception of risk, the text is aimed at students and researchers of health and health services. It has also been designed for health professionals and policy makers who have responsibility for applying research findings in practice, and who need to know how to judge the value of that research.

Table of Contents:
Part one: Investigating health services and health: the scope of research Evaluating health services multidisciplinary collaboration Social research on health sociological and psychological concepts and approaches Health needs and their assessment demography and epidemiology Costing health services health economics Part two: The philosophy, theory and practice of research The philosophical framework of measurement The principles of research Part three: Quantitative research: sampling and research methods Sample size and sampling for quantitative research Quantitative research surveys Quantitative research experiments and other analytic methods of investigation Sample selection and group assignment methods in experiments and other analytic methods Part four: The tools of quantitative research Data collection methods in quantitative research questionnaires, interviews and their response rates Questionnaire design Techniques of survey interviewing Preparation of quantitative data for coding and analysis Part five: Qualitative and combined research methods, and their analysis Unstructured and structured observational studies Unstructured interviewing and focus groups Other methods using both qualitative and quantitative approaches case studies, consensus methods, action research and document research Glossary References Index.

About the Author :
Ann Bowling is Professor of Health Services Research at University College London. She specialises in quality of life measurement, research on ageing and equity of access to health services, and is author of best selling books on research methods and measurement including Measuring Disease, Measuring Health, and A handbook of Health Research Methods jointly with professor Shah Ebrahim (all published by OpenUP).

Review :
"...a brilliantly clear documentation of different philosophies, approaches and methods of research about health and health services. Laid out in an accessible and manageable way, it covers an enormous amount of material without sacrificing thoroughness...I would recommend it to a broad readership." - MIDIRS Midwifery Digest; "This major research textbook is as good as an introduction to the field as you are likely to find." - The International Journal of Social Psychiatry; "...an easy to read book with excellent background information on the theory and practice of research. A summary of main points, key terms and recommended reading follows each chapter and there is a useful glossary of terms at the end of the book for quick reference...I particularly liked the checklists when undertaking literature reviews and writing research proposals." - British Journal of Health Care Management