G.J. Melendez-Torres

Whether you are looking to interpret and evaluate existing health research, or conduct your own, this book discusses every step of the research process, from theory and ethics to data collection, analysis and dissemination. Clear, engaging and drawing on diverse examples from various health disciplines – from public health and nursing to occupational health and nutrition – this fifth edition: Offers detailed guidance on synthesising and integrating evidence, with a new chapter on systematic reviews. Fully embeds material on the effective use of digital and social media research in health across all chapters. Showcases what health research looks like in practice, with 28 case studies from across the globe. Ideal for undergraduates, postgraduates and beginner researchers in health and related fields, this book is a vital resource for building your confidence in understanding and doing qualitative research.

Whether you are looking to interpret and evaluate existing health research, or conduct your own, this book discusses every step of the research process, from theory and ethics to data collection, analysis and dissemination. Clear, engaging and drawing on diverse examples from various health disciplines – from public health and nursing to occupational health and nutrition – this fifth edition: Offers detailed guidance on synthesising and integrating evidence, with a new chapter on systematic reviews. Fully embeds material on the effective use of digital and social media research in health across all chapters. Showcases what health research looks like in practice, with 28 case studies from across the globe. Ideal for undergraduates, postgraduates and beginner researchers in health and related fields, this book is a vital resource for building your confidence in understanding and doing qualitative research.

This book describes an innovative approach to the evaluation of complex health interventions, assessing what interventions work, how and for whom. Rejecting the stalemate between trials and realist evaluation, it draws on the best of both. Randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews offer the least biased means of assessing intervention effects but tell us little scientifically about how interventions work. Policy-makers and practitioners are also not supported to decide which interventions are likely to achieve most benefits in their local contexts. Realists use other forms of evaluation and evidence synthesis exploring how intervention mechanisms interact with context to generate outcomes. But these approaches lack rigour in assessing causality. This book proposes how realist evaluation methods may be incorporated within randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews. This enables evaluations and evidence synthesis to benefit from the more nuanced questions posed within realist enquiry while maintaining rigour in assessing causality.