Research methods in health: Investigating health and health services

Content: Research Methods in Health: Investigating Health and Health Services
 Research Methods in Health
 Praise for this book
 Contents
 Preface to the fourth edition
 Acknowledgements
 Section 1 Investigating health services and health: the scope of research
 Chapter 1 Evaluating health services: multidisciplinary collaboration
 Introduction
 Health services research
 The assessment of quality
 Audit
 Medical audit, clinical audit, quality assurance and clinical governance
 Evaluation
 Structure, process and outcome
 Appropriateness and inappropriateness
 Outcome
 Key terms
 Recommended reading. Chapter 2 Social research on health: sociological and psychological concepts and approachesIntroduction
 Sociological and psychological research on health
 2.1 Health and illness
 2.2 Social factors in illness and responses to illness
 2.3 Models of health behaviour
 Key terms
 Chapter 3 Quality of life: concepts, measurements and patient perception
 Introduction
 3.1 H ealth-related and broader quality of life
 3.2 P atients' perceptions
 Key terms
 Recommended reading
 Chapter 4 Health needs and their assessment: demography and epidemiology
 Introduction
 4.1 The assessment of health needs. 4.2 Epidemiology4.3 The role of demography
 Key terms
 Recommended reading
 Chapter 5 Costing health services: health economics
 Introduction
 Health economics
 Demand, utility and supply
 Economic appraisal
 Cost minimisation
 Cost-effectiveness
 Cost-benefit analysis
 Event pathways
 Opportunity cost
 Discounting
 Cost-utility analysis
 Cost-utility analysis and summary health indices
 Eliciting values
 Costing health services
 Study methods used for costings
 Key terms
 Recommended reading
 Section II The philosophy, theory and practice of research. Chapter 6 The philosophical framework of measurementIntroduction
 The philosophy of science
 Paradigms
 Objectivity and value freedom
 Deductive and inductive approaches
 The survival of hypotheses and paradigm shifts
 Theoretical influences on social research methods
 Social science and grounded theory
 Positivism
 Phenomenology
 Choice of methods
 Key terms
 Recommended reading
 Chapter 7 The principles of research
 Introduction
 Searching the published and unpublished literature
 Systematic literature reviews
 Systematic qualitative reviews
 Meta-analyses
 Critical appraisal. Evidence-based practiceRigour in conducting research
 Aims, objectives and hypotheses
 Concepts and theories
 Research proposals
 Research design and research methods
 Selection of measurement instruments
 Level of data and statistical techniques
 Levels of data, parametric and non-parametric statistics
 Reliability and validity
 Threats to reliability and validity
 Ethics and ethical committees
 Dissemination
 Key terms
 Recommended reading
 Section III Quantitative research: sampling and research methods
 Chapter 8 Sample size and sampling for quantitative and qualitative research.