Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0335214614 ISBN 13: 9780335214617

Publisher: Open University Press, 2005

"an ideal set text" Angela Scriven, Course Leader, Brunel University

• Which research method should I use to evaluate services?
• How do I design a questionnaire?
• How do I conduct a systematic review of research?

This handbook helps researchers to plan, carry out, and analyse health research, and evaluate the quality of research studies. The book takes a multidisciplinary approach to enable researchers from different disciplines to work side-by-side in the investigation of population health, the evaluation of health care, and in health care delivery.

Handbook of Health Research Methods is an essential tool for researchers and postgraduate students taking masters courses, or undertaking doctoral programmes, in health services evaluation, health sciences, health management, public health, nursing, sociology, socio-biology, medicine and epidemiology. However, the book also appeals to health professionals who wish to broaden their knowledge of research methods in order to make effective policy and practice decisions.

Contributors: Joy Adamson, Geraldine Barrett, Jane P. Biddulph, Ann Bowling, Sara Brookes, Jackie Brown, Simon Carter, Michel P. Coleman, Paul Cullinan, George Davey Smith, Paul Dieppe, Jenny Donovan, Craig Duncan, Shah Ebrahim, Vikki Entwistle, Clare Harries, Lesley Henderson, Kelvyn Jones, Olga Kostopoulou, Sarah J. Lewis, Richard Martin, Martin McKee, Graham Moon, Ellen Nolte, Alan O’Rourke, Ann Oakley, Tim Peters, Tina Ramkalawan, Caroline Sanders, Mary Shaw, Andrew Steptoe, Jonathan Sterne, Anne Stiggelbout, S.V. Subramanian, Kate Tilling, Liz Twigg, Suzanne Wait.

About the Author:

Ann Bowling is a social scientist and is Professor of Health Services Research in the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences at University College London, and has a part secondment to the MRC Health Services Research Collaboration, University of Bristol. She is the author of Research Methods in Health (2002), now in its second edition and published by Open University Press.

Shah Ebrahim is an epidemiologist with a clinical background in Geriatric Medicine and holds a Professorship in Epidemiology of Ageing in the Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol and is honorary professor of epidemiology at University College London. He is coordinating editor of the Cochrane Heart Group and co-editor of the International Journal of Epidemiology. He is the author of books on geriatric medicine, stroke and epidemiology of ageing.