Companion Websites

Mike Saks is Professor and Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Academic Affairs) at the University of Lincoln, UK. He was previously Dean of Health and Community Studies at De Montfort University. He has published extensively on health research in books such as Developing Research in Primary Care (Radcliffe Medical Press, 2000), Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Challenge and Change (Routledge, 2003) and Orthodox and Alternative Medicine: Professionalization, Politics and Health Care (Sage, 2003). He has been a member/chair of many NHS committees at all levels, including on research and development. Mike Saks has also acted as an adviser to the UK Department of Health, most recently on health support workers and the Shipman Inquiry. He has been a central participant in a number of funded international health projects and is President-elect of the Executive of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Professional Groups.

Judith Allsop is Professor of Health Policy at the University of Lincoln, UK. She is also Emerita Professor at London Southbank University. She has written a number of books and articles on health policy, the professions, consumers and complaints. Recent books include, with Mike Saks, Regulating the Health Professions (Sage, 2002) and, with R. Baggott and K.Jones, Speaking for Patients, Health Consumer Groups and the Policy Process (Palgrave, 2005). She has been a policy adviser to various government bodies and most recently was commissioned by the Department of Health to undertake studies of health professional regulation in the UK and medical regulation in an international context.

Chapter overview

This introductory chapter has two purposes. First it outlines the key principles underlying research in any discipline and then defines research in a health context. It shows that health research can be focused at different levels from the individual to the community, from patients to professionals and at local, national and international level. Second it provides an overview of the book including details of the framework each author was asked to consider when writing their chapter.

Chapter links

Chapter 2 - Competing Paradigms and Health Research

Suggested Online Readings

Grypdonck, M.H.F. (2006) ‘Qualitative Health Research in the Era of Evidence-Based Practice’, Qualitative Health Research 16 (10): 1371-85.

Evidence-based health care (EBHC) sets the tone in health care and health care research nowadays. Qualitative health researchers have to position themselves in a world that is dominated by it. The popularity of EBHC is not due to the rationality of its tenets. In this article, the author addresses major problems in EBHC. Qualitative research is important for providing the understanding that is necessary to apply findings from quantitative research properly and safely. Basic studies about the human experience in illness and regarding human behaviour and meaning in general remain of great value, even in the era of EBHC. Qualitative research also plays an important role in developing scholarship.

Hoff,T.J.; Witt, L.C. (2000) ‘Exploring the Use of Qualitative Methods in Published Health Services and Management Research Medical Care’, Research and Review, 57 (2): 139-60.

There is interest in promoting greater use of qualitative methods in health care research. However, little is known about the volume or characteristics of published studies that use qualitative methods. This article explores these issues through a systematic review of 3 years (1995-1997) of articles classified as research in nine core health services research and management journals. The findings show that only about one in seven published research articles used qualitative methods. The primary purposes in using these methods are description and articulating stakeholder perspectives.

Kinn, S.; Curzio, J. (2005) ‘Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods’, Journal of Research in Nursing, 10 (3): 317-36.

There are a growing number of authors arguing the case for integrating qualitative and quantitative research methods within research projects. A study was carried out to identify the amount of published work integrating qualitative and quantitative research methods and to assess the quality of the outcomes of studies purporting to use both methods. Where the results of the different parts of the study were integrated, the outcomes from the research were more convincing than they might otherwise have been. Other papers had little discussion about the balance or integration of the different types of results. Further work is required to refine and develop ways to mix methods to generate the evidence required to support practice.

Further Reading

Bowling, A. (2002) Research Methods in Health: Investigating Health and Health Services. 2nd edition. Buckingham: Open University Press.

This gives a clear description of a range of selected methods and has been produced in a second edition to reflect new methodological developments.

Bowling, A. and Ebrahim, S. (eds.) (2005) Handbook of Health Research Methods: Investigation, Measurement and Analysis. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

This book contains a useful set of further readings, with the main aim of helping researchers from different disciplines work collaboratively in health research.

Dyson, S. and Brown, B. (2006) Social Theory and Applied Health Research. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

This introductory book highlights in an accessible manner the theoretical context underpinning applied research in the health care field.

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