Research Methods in Health: Investigating Health and Health Services

Praise for the first edition of Research Methods in Health:

"Professor Bowling should be congratulated on her achievement in producing such a substantial overview of the topic." - International Journal for Quality in Health Care

"...a brilliantly clear documentation of different philosophies, approaches and methods of research about health and health services. Laid out in an accessible and manageable way, it covers an enormous amount of material without sacrificing thoroughness...I would recommend it to a broad readership." - MIDIRS Midwifery Digest

"Professor Ann Bowling is not only a superb and illuminating conference presenter - she also writes exceptional books. This major research textbook is as good as an introduction to the field as you are likely to find." - The International Journal of Social Psychiatry

"...an easy to read book with excellent background information on the theory and practice of research. A summary of main points, key terms and recommended reading follows each chapter and there is a useful glossary of terms at the end of the book for quick reference...I particularly liked the checklists when undertaking literature reviews and writing research proposals." - British Journal of Health Care Management

This new edition of Ann Bowling's well-known and highly respected text has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect key methodological developments in health research. It is a comprehensive, easy to read, guide to the range of methods used to study and evaluate health and health services. It describes the concepts and methods used by the main disciplines involved in health research, including: demography, epidemiology, health economics, psychology and sociology.

The research methods described cover the assessment of health needs, morbidity and mortality trends and rates, costing health services, sampling for survey research, cross-sectional and longitudinal survey design, experimental methods and techniques of group assignment, questionnaire design, interviewing techniques, coding and analysis of quantitative data, methods and analysis of qualitative observational studies, and types of unstructured interviewing.

With new material on topics such as cluster randomization, utility analyses, patients' preferences, and perception of risk, the text is aimed at students and researchers of health and health services. It has also been designed for health professionals and policy makers who have responsibility for applying research findings in practice, and who need to know how to judge the value of that research.

Ann Bowling is a social scientist and is currently Professor of Health Services Research in the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences at University College London. She directs an active research programme and has both PhD and master's programmes, including the MRes in health services research and policy at UCL. She is also author of Measuring Health, A Review of Quality of Life Measurement Scales and Measuring Disease, A Review of Disease-Specific Quality of Life Measurement Scales, both published by the Open University Press.

Ian Rees Jones is Professor of Sociology of Health and Illness, St George's Hospital Medical School, London. He is also a social scientist with an extensive research background, and teaches on both undergraduate and post-graduate courses.