"an ideal set text" Angela Scriven, Course Leader, Brunel University Which research method should I use to evaluate services?How do I design a questionnaire?How do I conduct a systematic review of research? This handbook helps researchers to plan, carry out, and analyse health research, and evaluate the quality of research studies. The book takes a multidisciplinary approach to enable researchers from different disciplines to work side-by-side in the investigation of population health, the evaluation of health care, and in health care delivery. Handbook of Health Research Methods is an essential tool for researchers and postgraduate students taking masters courses, or undertaking doctoral programmes, in health services evaluation, health sciences, health management, public health, nursing, sociology, socio-biology, medicine and epidemiology. However, the book also appeals to health professionals who wish to broaden their knowledge of research methods in order to make effective policy and practice decisions.Contributors: Joy Adamson, Geraldine Barrett, Jane P. Biddulph, Ann Bowling, Sara Brookes, Jackie Brown, Simon Carter, Michel P. Coleman, Paul Cullinan, George Davey Smith, Paul Dieppe, Jenny Donovan, Craig Duncan, Shah Ebrahim, Vikki Entwistle, Clare Harries, Lesley Henderson, Kelvyn Jones, Olga Kostopoulou, Sarah J. Lewis, Richard Martin, Martin McKee, Graham Moon, Ellen Nolte, Alan O'Rourke, Ann Oakley, Tim Peters, Tina Ramkalawan, Caroline Sanders, Mary Shaw, Andrew Steptoe, Jonathan Sterne, Anne Stiggelbout, S.V. Subramanian, Kate Tilling, Liz Twigg, Suzanne Wait.

Almost a decade has passed since the first edition of this book was published and the explosion of new research in stroke is very apparent. Several important themes have coloured medicine during this time: the development of evidence based health care, new optimism for acute drug treatments for stroke, the growth of new information about the human genome, a dramatic increase in the number of stroke clinicians and researchers world-wide, and the establishment of the Cochrane Collaboration. All of these trends are relevant in revising a book of this nature. Clinical epidemiology remains an essential foundation for the practice of evidence-based healthcare. The enthusiasm of the pharmaceutical industry has resulted in a large number of new trials, often too small to detect clinically important differences, and have increased the number of clinicians actively engaged in stroke research. It is even more important that these clinicians should have a good understanding of the design of trials, the rationale for randomisation and blinding, and the importance of selecting the most appropriate outcomes. Surprisingly, little of practical importance has resulted from the decade of exploration of the human genome - the best indication of a person's risk remains their phenotype and not their genotype. The impetus to organise stroke medicine into a defined speciality, with emphasis on acute stroke, is even stronger - but it is essential to bear in mind the importance of interdisciplinary working, the value of primary care, geriatric medicine, psychiatry and rehabilitation in the prevention, treatment rehabilitation and long-term care of stroke patients. The Cochrane Collaboration is currently grappling with a task of enormous size - the compression of tens of thousands of randomised control trials -and other scientific evidence- into systematic reviews of the effects of interventions. Citations to this work are made in the section on management. In this edition, there is an extra opening section entitled Epidemiology which comprises the nuts and bolts of the subject and reviews the purposes of health care for stroke patients. The remaining sections follow the format of the first edition: Diagnosis, Management, and Prognosis. All chapters have been substantially updated. The book retains its focus on epidemiology that is relevant to the clinician and attempts to use examples from stroke to illustrate many aspects of epidemiological thinking. The book aims to stimulate readers to think about their own practice, the nature of scientific evidence and the vast areas of clinical uncertainty that remain the target for research over the coming decades.

This book covers current controversies in women's health care. It takes a broad interdisciplinary approach to the subject. With topics ranging from the controversies in breast and cervical cancer screening, through osteoporosis and the menopause, to the relationships of older women with their doctors, it provides a well-rounded view of health care for older women. Each chapter has been written by an authority in that field and includes issues of current debate. The book is suitable both for students new to the area and for specialists wishing to read about the work of others in related fields, as well as being a useful source of information for general practitioners about the provision of women's health care from a primary care perspective.

Epidemiology is a basic medical science that is fundamental to understanding diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Diagnosis requires answers to a series of questions: is this patient sick or well? If sick, what are the chances of a particular disease causing the problem? What investigations will be most useful in obtaining the diagnosis? Epidemiology applied to the bedside problems of patients - clinical epidemiology - can help to provide solutions. The ability of a detail of the patient's history, or a clinical sign which could confirm or disprove diagnosis can be described by using simple arithmetic. The probability that a disease is or is not present can be given a numerical value, and the extent to which investigation increases or reduces the likelihood of discovering disease can also be measured. Stroke is one of the most common diagnoses made by physicians. Patients with signs and symptoms suggestive of stroke require careful assessment to avoid diagnostic error. This book is written by a clinician who is also trained in epidemiology and is intended for clinicians who treat patients with stroke, for epidemiologists who want to apply epidemiology to clinical problems, for therapists who wish to develop their understanding of the application of scientific method to rehabilitation practice, and for medical students who may wish to accelerate and complement the process of acquiring clinical experience about stroke.