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This bestselling book provides an accessible introduction to the concepts and practicalities of research methods in health and health services.
List of contents
Preface to the fourth edition
AcknowledgementsSection I Investigating health services and health: the scope of research 1 Evaluating health services: multidisciplinary collaboration
2 Social research on health: sociological and psychological concepts and approaches
3 Quality of life: concepts, measurements and patient perception
4 Health needs and their assessment: demography and epidemiology
5 Costing health services: health economics
Section II The philosophy, theory and practice of research6 The philosophical framework of measurement
7 The principles of research
Section III Quantitative research: sampling and research methods8 Sample size and sampling for quantitative and qualitative research
9 Quantitative research: surveys
10 Quantitative research: experiments and other analytic methods of investigation
11 Sample selection and group assignment methods in experiments and other analytic methods
Section IV The tools of quantitative research12 Data collection methods in quantitative research: questionnaires, interviews and their response rates
13 Questionnaire design
14 Techniques of survey interviewing
15 Preparation of quantitative data for coding and analysis
Section V Qualitative and mixed research methods16 Unstructured and structured observational studies
17 Unstructured interviewing
18 Focus groups
19 Mixed research approaches
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).
