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Evaluating Research in Health and Social Care
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Evaluating Research in Health and Social Care

First Edition
November 2000 | 352 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
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Practitioners across the caring professions increasingly need to know where evidence can be found and to evaluate different forms of evidence with a critical eye. This invaluable collection includes exemplars of a wide range of research techniques and provides a critical commentary for each. The commentary is designed to tackle jargon and demystify the text, highlighting the compromises that need to be made in real world research designs and the complexity of controlling relevant variables. The book seeks to underline the challenges of interpreting and generalising results both for the researchers and for those who fund their work. This is a set book for the Open University course K302 Critical Practice in Health and Social Care.
 
Introduction
 
PART ONE: EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES
 
Experimental Methods and Simple Interventions
Bandages for Leg Ulcers

 
 
Experimental Methods and Complex Interventions
Case Management in Mental Health Care

 
 
From Effectiveness to Cost-Effectiveness
A Trial of a Hospital at Home Scheme

 
 
Comparing Like with Like
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Homes Visiting Schemes and Childhood Injury

 
 
The Basics of Experimental Design
 
Research Instruments in Experimental Research
 
Reading the Results of Experimental Research
 
PART TWO: SURVEY RESEARCH
 
Surveys, Samples and Questions
Consumer Satisfaction with the NHS

 
 
An Equity Audit in Coronary Care
 
Surveys and Case Control Studies
 
Controlling for Age and Socio-Economic Circumstances
 
PART THREE: QUALITATIVE APPROACHES
 
Loosely Structured Interviews
The Stories Behind the Statistics

 
 
Naturalistic Observation
Midwives' Ethnic Sterotyping of their Patients

 
 
Understanding Language in Context
Professional Uncertainty

 
 
Action Research
Applied Qualitative Methods in the Family Centre

 
 
Collecting and Analysing Qualitative Data
 
PART FOUR: RESEARCH APPRAISAL QUESTIONS

'[T]he aim of the book is to give health practitioners "the background to read and understand research". I believe that this book is indeed capable of fulfilling this function, and is a useful addition to any research methods reading list. [T]he resource chapters are extremely well written and well presented with good use of sub-headings, tables, figures, and boxes to explain items in more detail.

Overall, I think this is an excellent book and a very good introduction to research. It is certainly suitable for health professionals wanting to understand enough about research to be able to read and understand published papers, but is also an excellent book to accompany any research methods course. The use of published research and the cleanly written and accessible style of the book make it an unusual and very welcome addition to the research methods field' - Medical Sociology News

'This is an ambitious contribution to the ever-growing market for research textbooks. The book concludes with an excellent appendix on sources of literature. …useful for postgraduate students and staff wishing to fill gaps and/or double-check their facts' - Physiotherapy

`In lieu of serving up the usual fare of methods and applications to be chosen from at whim, it concentrates on clinicians with limited time who wish to evaluate research rather than necessarily do it themselves.... If you already have a book on research methods...this book will still fine-tune your antennae to the good, the bad and the cant' - The British Journal of Healthcare Computing and Information Management

'Recommended reading' - Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

An excellent book for helping health and social care professionals and students a like to develop their evaluating skills of published research.

Miss Martina Kirlew
Health and Social Care, University of Bolton
July 1, 2015
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This is a thorough book on appraisal of the quality of research. Nine articles are presented with assistance provided in interpreting them, together with chapters about the essentials of experimental and survey methods. A book that is not for the faint-hearted, but a valuable learning aid for those embarking on serious literature review methods.

Professor Brian Taylor
Social Work , University of Ulster
March 9, 2015
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overall a resonable book but there are significant absences of information, e.g. there are only two lines mentioning triangulation which is a recognised research method-I wonder why?

Mr David Atkinson
Department of Health & Human Sciences, Essex University
December 13, 2012
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