Table of Contents
Preface to the First Edition vii
Preface to the Third Edition ix
PART I SETTING THE SCENE: WHO DID WHAT, AND WHY 1
1 Some Preliminaries 3
2 The Abstract and Introduction 7
3 The Aims and Objectives 14
PART II DESIGN MATTERS: WHAT TYPE OF STUDY IS IT? 21
4 Descriptive Studies: Qualitative 23
5 Descriptive Studies: Quantitative 29
6 Analytic Studies 35
7 Intervention Studies 42
8 Mixed Methods Research 50
PART III THE CAST: FINDING OUT ABOUT THE SUBJECTS OF THE RESEARCH 53
9 The Research Setting 55
10 Populations and Samples in Quantitative Research 59
11 The Sample in Qualitative Research 63
12 Identifying and Defining Cases 67
13 Controls and Comparisons 70
PART IV ESTABLISHING THE FACTS: STARTING WITH BASIC OBSERVATIONS 75
14 Identifying the Characteristics of Quantitative Data 77
15 Summarising the Characteristics of Quantitative Data 84
16 Identifying and Summarising the Characteristics of Qualitative Data 90
17 Measuring the Characteristics of Participants: Quantitative 93
18 Measuring the Characteristics of Participants: Qualitative 99
19 Measuring the Characteristics of Measures 102
20 Measurement Scales 106
21 Exploring and Explaining: Topic Guides 118
PART V ESTABLISHING MORE OF THE FACTS: SOME COMMON WAYS OF DESCRIBING RESULTS 121
22 Fractions, Proportions, and Rates 123
23 Risks and Odds 125
24 Ratios of Risks and Odds 128
PART VI ANALYSING THE DATA: ESTIMATION AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING 135
25 Confidence Intervals for Means, Proportions, and Medians 137
26 Confidence Intervals for Ratios 143
27 Testing Hypotheses – the p-Value 147
PART VII ANALYSING THE DATA: MULTIVARIABLE METHODS 161
28 Measuring Association 163
29 Measuring Agreement 170
30 Linear Regression 175
31 Logistic Regression 185
32 Measuring Survival 190
33 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis 196
34 Analysing Qualitative Data 206
35 Results in Text and Tables 211
36 Results in Pictures 219
37 The Discussion and Conclusions 227
References 231
Index 239
