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| Mike Saks and Judith Allsop |
Chapter 20 - Comparative Health
Research
Viola Burau |
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| Contributor
biography |
| Viola Burau is Associate Professor
in the Department of Political Science at the University
of Aarhus, Denmark. Her research interests lie in comparative
health policy, professions in the welfare state, the policies
and politics of care and methods of cross-country comparison.
She has published on governing care occupations, approaches
to cross-country comparison and the politics and policies
of health care. She has written two books: Comparative
Health Policy (with R. H. Blank, Palgrave, 2nd edition
forthcoming) and Governing Home Care (with H. Theobald
and R. H Blank, Edward Elgar, forthcoming). She currently
co-ordinates an international research project on the
new governance of medical performance. |
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| Chapter overview |
| The chapter shows how the cross-country,
comparative perspective has become increasingly significant
in understanding contemporary issues in health. It addresses
issues of research design and strategy. |
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| Chapter links |
Chapter
16 - Mixed Methods and Multidisciplinary Research in Health
Care
Chapter 18 - Researching the
Health of Ethnic Minority Groups |
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| Suggested
Online Readings |
| Nathanson,
C.A. (2005) ‘Collective Actors and Corporate Targets
in Tobacco Control: A Cross-National Comparison’,
Health Education and Behavior, 32 (3): 337-54. |
| Cross-national comparative analysis
of tobacco control strategies can alert health advocates
about how opportunities for public health action; the
types of action possible and probabilities for success
are shaped by political systems and cultures. This article
is based on case studies of tobacco control in the United
States, Canada, Britain, and France. Two questions are
addressed: (a) To whom were the dangers of smoking attributed?
(b) What was the role of collective action in combating
the problems? Activists in Canada, Britain, and France
took action earlier than in the United States to target
the tobacco industry and the state. In the U.S. locally-based
advocacy has tended to focus on the dangers of passive
smoking. The paper concludes that US-style advocacy has
played a major role in the decline in smoking. |
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| Scott,
P.A., Välimäki, M., Leino-Kilpi, H., Dassen,
T., Gasull. M., Lemonidou, C., Arndt, M., Schopp, A.,
Suhonen, R. and Kaljonen, A. (2003) ‘Perceptions
of Autonomy in the Care of Elderly People in Five European
Countries’, Nursing Ethics, 10 (1): 28-38. |
| This article presents findings from
a five country study of care for elderly people. The focus
is on the perceptions of elderly patients and nurses on
patients’ autonomy in nursing practice. Autonomy
is defined as having two components: information received/given
as a prerequisite, and decision making as the action.
The results indicated differences between staff and patient
perceptions of patient autonomy for both components in
all five countries in which this survey was conducted.
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| Szarflarski,
M. and Cubbins, L.A. (2004) ‘Self-Reported Health
in Poland and the United States: A Comparative Analysis
of Demographic, Family and Socioeconomic Influences’,
Health, 8 (1): 5-31. |
| This study compares the social determinants
of individual health between the United States, a capitalist
society, and Poland, a ‘post-communist’ society.
The effects of demographic factors, family characteristics
and socioeconomic status on self-reported health are assessed
using data from the 1994 American and Polish General Social
Surveys. The results show lower self-reported health and
a more rapid decline in health for people over 60 in Poland
than in the United States. In Poland, women report worse
health than do men while the opposite is found for the
United States. The relationships between education, income
and health were stronger in the United States than in
Poland. |
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| Further Reading |
| Blank, R. H. and Burau, V. (2004)
Comparative Health Policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan. |
This introductory comparative text
analyzes key issues in health policy from a research
viewpoint and assesses how far policy problems and responses
in different countries have common or diverse origins. |
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| Burau, V. and Blank, R. H. (2006)
‘Comparing Health Policy: An Assessment of Typologies
of Health Systems’, Journal of Comparative Policy
Analysis, 8(1): 63-76. |
| This recent article discusses the
strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to understanding
the country-specific contexts of health, health care and
health policies. |
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| Mabbett, D. and Bolderson, H. (1999)
‘Theories and Methods in Comparative Social Policy’,
in Clasen, J. (ed.) Comparative Social Policy: Concepts,
Theories and Methods. Oxford: Blackwell. |
| This paper discusses different approaches
to comparative international research and the implications
of the comparative approach for the research process.
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© Sage Publications Ltd. |
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