Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
Like the previous versions, the fifth edition of An Introduction to Research in the Health Sciences has two overall aims. 1) To introduce the fundamental principles of research methodology and explain how these principles are applied for conducting research in the health sciences. 2) To demonstrate how evidence produced through research is applied to solving problems in everday health care. This book is written in an accessible style. It maintains the traditions of the previous editions, with examples, questions, feedback sections, and an extensive glossary.
- Uses simple language and demystifies the jargon
- Provides built-in feedback for readers to assess their own progress
- Gives examples relating directly to the health sciences
- Provides an extensive glossary for better understanding of the language of research
- Addresses qualitative as well as quantitative research issues
- Includes a chapter focussing on the use of qualitative methods in health research
- Includes a chapter for discussing systematic reviews and meta-analyses
- Contains more revision questions Increased emphasis throughout on evidence based concepts
- More and updated discussion of qualitative research methods
- New section on basic epidemiological concepts as a research approach
- More discussion of analysis and use of administrative and secondary data sets as research resources
- Complete rewrite of the chapter on causal research
- Stronger links between the sections on different stages of research
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Cover | Cover | ||
| Introduction to Research in the Health Sciences | iii | ||
| Copyright Page | iv | ||
| Table of Contents | v | ||
| Dedication | ii | ||
| Preface | vii | ||
| Section One: The scientific method | 1 | ||
| Chapter One: Methods and health research | 3 | ||
| Introduction | 3 | ||
| Methods and knowledge | 3 | ||
| The scientific method and positivism | 5 | ||
| Controversies concerning the nature of method: post-positivism | 7 | ||
| Science and the cultural context | 9 | ||
| Pragmatism: the combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods | 10 | ||
| Research and clinical practice | 11 | ||
| Summary | 12 | ||
| Self-assessment | 12 | ||
| Section One: Discussion, questions and answers | 15 | ||
| Section Two: Research planning | 19 | ||
| Chapter Two. Research planning | 21 | ||
| Introduction | 21 | ||
| Sources of research questions | 21 | ||
| The formulation of research questions | 22 | ||
| The justification of research questions | 22 | ||
| Formulation of research aims | 23 | ||
| Research strategies | 23 | ||
| Research planning: ethical considerations | 24 | ||
| Selection of research strategies: economic considerations | 26 | ||
| Steps in research planning | 27 | ||
| Summary | 27 | ||
| Self-assessment | 27 | ||
| Chapter Three. Sampling methods and external validity | 31 | ||
| Introduction | 31 | ||
| What is sampled in a study | 32 | ||
| Basic issues in sampling | 32 | ||
| Representative samples | 32 | ||
| Sample size | 35 | ||
| Sampling issues in qualitative research | 37 | ||
| Purposive sampling | 37 | ||
| External validity and sampling | 39 | ||
| Summary | 40 | ||
| Self-assessment | 40 | ||
| Chapter Four. Causal research and internal validity | 43 | ||
| Introduction | 43 | ||
| Causality | 44 | ||
| Threats to internal validity in intervention studies | 44 | ||
| The need for control | 46 | ||
| The use of control groups in clinical research | 46 | ||
| Summary | 47 | ||
| Self-assessment | 47 | ||
| Section Two: Discussion, questions and answers | 49 | ||
| Section Three: Research designs | 53 | ||
| Chapter Five. Experimental designs and intervention studies | 55 | ||
| Introduction | 55 | ||
| Experimental research | 56 | ||
| Assignment of participants into groups | 56 | ||
| Different experimental designs | 57 | ||
| External validity of experiments and RCTs | 58 | ||
| Controlled research involving human participants | 59 | ||
| Summary | 60 | ||
| Self-assessment | 60 | ||
| Chapter Six. Surveys and quasi-experimental designs | 65 | ||
| Introduction | 65 | ||
| Naturalistic non-experimental research designs | 66 | ||
| Surveys | 66 | ||
| Epidemiology | 66 | ||
| Quasi-experimental designs | 69 | ||
| The internal and external validity of naturalistic designs | 71 | ||
| Summary | 72 | ||
| Self-assessment | 72 | ||
| Chapter Seven. Single case (n = 1) designs | 75 | ||
| Introduction | 75 | ||
| AB designs | 76 | ||
| ABAB designs | 76 | ||
| Multiple baseline designs | 77 | ||
| The interpretation of the results for n = 1 designs | 78 | ||
| The validity of n = 1 designs | 79 | ||
| Summary | 80 | ||
| Self-assessment | 80 | ||
| Chapter Eight. Qualitative research | 83 | ||
| Introduction | 83 | ||
| What is qualitative research? | 84 | ||
| Data collection and interpretation in qualitative field research | 84 | ||
| Qualitative field research | 87 | ||
| The integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies | 88 | ||
| The validity of qualitative field research | 89 | ||
| Summary | 89 | ||
| Self-assessment | 90 | ||
| Section Three: Discussion, questions and answers | 93 | ||
| Section Four: Data collection | 97 | ||
| Chapter Nine. Questionnaire design | 99 | ||
| Introduction | 99 | ||
| Questionnaire construction | 99 | ||
| Questions and questionnaire formats | 100 | ||
| The overall structure of questionnaires | 104 | ||
| Summary | 104 | ||
| Self-assessment | 104 | ||
| Chapter Ten. Interview techniques and the analysis of interview data | 107 | ||
| Introduction | 107 | ||
| Structured and unstructured interviews | 107 | ||
| Methods of conducting interviews | 108 | ||
| The interview process | 109 | ||
| Methods of recording interview information | 110 | ||
| The analysis of interview data | 112 | ||
| Summary | 113 | ||
| Self-assessment | 114 | ||
| Chapter Eleven. Observation | 115 | ||
| Introduction | 115 | ||
| Overview of different approaches to observation | 115 | ||
| Observer roles | 118 | ||
| Observation in qualitative field research | 119 | ||
| Observation in quantitative research | 121 | ||
| Summary | 121 | ||
| Self-assessment | 122 | ||
| Chapter Twelve. Measurement | 125 | ||
| Introduction | 125 | ||
| Operational definitions and measurement | 125 | ||
| Objective and subjective measures | 126 | ||
| Desirable properties of measurement tools and procedures | 126 | ||
| Standardized measures and tests | 130 | ||
| Measurement scale types | 130 | ||
| Summary | 133 | ||
| Self-assessment | 133 | ||
| Section Four: Discussion, questions and answers | 137 | ||
| Section Five: Descriptive statistics | 141 | ||
| Chapter Thirteen. Organization and presentation of data | 143 | ||
| Introduction | 143 | ||
| The organization and presentation of nominal or ordinal data | 144 | ||
| Organization and presentation of interval or ratio data | 146 | ||
| Simple descriptive statistics | 148 | ||
| Summary | 150 | ||
| Self-assessment | 150 | ||
| Chapter Fourteen. Measures of central tendency and variability | 155 | ||
| Introduction | 155 | ||
| Measures of central tendency | 156 | ||
| Comparison of the mode, median and mean | 157 | ||
| Measures of variability | 158 | ||
| Summary | 161 | ||
| Self-assessment | 161 | ||
| Chapter Fifteen. Standard scores and the normal curve | 165 | ||
| Introduction | 165 | ||
| Standard scores (z scores) | 165 | ||
| Normal distributions | 166 | ||
| Calculations of areas under the normal curve | 168 | ||
| Standard normal curves for the comparison of distributions | 169 | ||
| Summary | 170 | ||
| Self-assessment | 171 | ||
| Chapter Sixteen. Correlation | 175 | ||
| Introduction | 175 | ||
| Correlation | 176 | ||
| Correlation coefficients | 177 | ||
| Calculation of correlation coefficients | 177 | ||
| Uses of correlation in the health sciences | 179 | ||
| Correlation and causation | 182 | ||
| Summary | 182 | ||
| Self-assessment | 183 | ||
| Section Five: Discussion, questions and answers | 187 | ||
| Section Six: Inferential statistics | 191 | ||
| Chapter Seventeen. Probability and sampling distributions | 193 | ||
| Introduction | 193 | ||
| Probability | 194 | ||
| Sampling distributions | 196 | ||
| Sampling distribution of the mean | 197 | ||
| Application of the central limit theorem to calculating confidence intervals | 199 | ||
| Confidence intervals where n is small: the t distribution | 200 | ||
| Summary | 202 | ||
| Self-assessment | 202 | ||
| Chapter Eighteen. Hypothesis testing | 207 | ||
| Introduction | 207 | ||
| A simple illustration of hypothesis testing | 208 | ||
| The logic of hypothesis testing | 209 | ||
| Steps in hypothesis testing | 209 | ||
| Directional and non-directional hypotheses and corresponding critical values of statistics | 210 | ||
| Statistical decisions with single sample means | 212 | ||
| Errors in inference | 214 | ||
| Summary | 215 | ||
| Self-assessment | 216 | ||
| Chapter Nineteen. Selection and use of statistical tests | 219 | ||
| Introduction | 219 | ||
| The relationship between descriptive and inferential statistics | 220 | ||
| Selection of the appropriate inferential test | 220 | ||
| The χ2 test | 222 | ||
| χ2 and contingency tables | 223 | ||
| Statistical packages | 225 | ||
| Summary | 227 | ||
| Self-assessment | 227 | ||
| Chapter Twenty. The interpretation of research evidence | 231 | ||
| Introduction | 231 | ||
| Effect size | 231 | ||
| How to interpret null (non-significant) results | 233 | ||
| Statistical power analysis | 234 | ||
| Clinical decision making | 235 | ||
| Summary | 236 | ||
| Section Six: Discussion, questions and answers | 239 | ||
| Section Seven: Dissemination and critical evaluation of research | 243 | ||
| Chapter Twenty One. Qualitative data analysis | 245 | ||
| Introduction | 245 | ||
| Understanding meaning in everyday life | 246 | ||
| Coding qualitative data | 246 | ||
| Content analysis | 247 | ||
| Thematic analysis, verstehen and grounded theory | 248 | ||
| Interpretation and social context | 249 | ||
| The accuracy of qualitative data analysis | 251 | ||
| Summary | 251 | ||
| Self-assessment | 252 | ||
| Chapter Twenty Two. Presentation of health science research | 255 | ||
| Introduction | 255 | ||
| The structure of research publications | 255 | ||
| The style of research publications | 258 | ||
| The publication process | 258 | ||
| Ethics of presenting research | 258 | ||
| Summary | 259 | ||
| Self-assessment | 259 | ||
| Chapter Twenty Three. Critical evaluation of published research | 263 | ||
| Introduction | 263 | ||
| Critical evaluation of the introduction | 264 | ||
| Critical evaluation of the methods section | 265 | ||
| Critical evaluation of the results | 266 | ||
| Critical evaluation of the discussion | 267 | ||
| Summary | 269 | ||
| Self-assessment | 269 | ||
| Chapter Twenty Four. Synthesis of research evidence | 273 | ||
| Introduction | 273 | ||
| Basic principles | 274 | ||
| Systematic reviews | 274 | ||
| Meta-analysis | 277 | ||
| Validity of systematic reviews | 280 | ||
| The Cochrane Collaboration | 280 | ||
| Summary | 281 | ||
| Self-assessment | 282 | ||
| Section Seven: Discussion, questions and answers | 285 | ||
| Section Eight | 289 | ||
| Glossary of research terms | 291 | ||
| References and further reading | 301 | ||
| Answers to questions | 305 | ||
| Appendix A: z scores and associated areas between z and mean and beyond | 317 | ||
| Appendix B: t distribution | 323 | ||
| Appendix C: Chi-square (χ2) | 325 | ||
| Index | 327 |