Qualitative Methods for Health Research

Whether you are looking to interpret and evaluate existing health research, or conduct your own, this book discusses every step of the research process, from theory and ethics to data collection, analysis and dissemination. 

Clear, engaging and drawing on diverse examples from various health disciplines – from public health and nursing to occupational health and nutrition – this fifth edition:

• Offers detailed guidance on synthesising and integrating evidence, with a new chapter on systematic reviews.
• Fully embeds material on the effective use of digital and social media research in health across all chapters.
• Showcases what health research looks like in practice, with 28 case studies from across the globe.

Ideal for undergraduates, postgraduates and beginner researchers in health and related fields, this book is a vital resource for building your confidence in understanding and doing qualitative research.

Judith Green has degrees in anthropology and sociology, and a PhD in the sociology of health. She has taught research methods to a wide range of students over the last 30 years, including undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students and health professionals from nursing, medicine, public health and sociology. She is currently Professor of Sociology at the University of Exeter, and Honorary Professor, in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. She has held posts at the King’s College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and London South Bank University. Judith has broad substantive interests in the sociology of health and health services, and has researched and published on primary care, professional identity, accidental injury, public understanding of risk and the relationships between transport and well-being. She is currently co-editor of the Journal of Critical Public Health. Other publications include Risk and misfortune: The social construction of accidents (1997, Taylor & Francis); Critical perspectives in public health, co-edited with Ronald Labonté (2008, Routledge) and Analysing health policy: A sociological approach (1998, Longman), also co-authored with Nicki Thorogood.

Nicki Thorogood’s first degree was in sociology and social anthropology, and she has a PhD in the sociology of health from the University of London. She has over 30 years’ experience of teaching undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students and health professionals from nursing, medicine, public health and sociology She is currently Programme Director for the DrPH (Doctorate in Public Health) at LSHTM as well as supervising several research degree students. Before coming to LSHTM (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) in 1999 she held posts at Middlesex University and at Guy’s, King’s and Thomas’s School of Medicine and Dentistry (GKT).

Her research interests are primarily in qualitative research into aspects of ‘identity’, e.g. ethnicity, gender, disability and sexuality and in the sociology of the body. She is also interested in the intersection of mental health with public health and health promotion. She is Series Editor, with Rosalind Plowman, of the Understanding Public Health series of textbooks published by Open University Press.

G.J. Melendez-Torres is Professor of Clinical and Social Epidemiology at the University of Exeter, where he also holds the cities RISE Research Chair in Public Mental Health. A registered nurse, G.J. also holds degrees in economics, social intervention and public health. His substantive interests include child and adolescent health (particularly adolescent social health in school contexts) and gender-based violence, including in international contexts, accompanied closely by methodological interests in evaluation and evidence synthesis (particularly of qualitative research). As an educator, he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2023 for innovation in teaching public health research methods at postgraduate level.