《Quantitative Methods for Health Research》第二版

dianzishu

作者: Bruce, Nigel/ Pope, Daniel/ Stanstreet, Debbi

Introduction

Welcome to Quantitative Methods for Health Research, a study programme designed to introduce you to the knowledge and skills required to make sense of published health research, and
to begin designing and carrying out studies of your own.

The book is based closely on materials developed and tested over more than 15 years with the campus-based and online Master of Public Health (MPH) programmes at the University of Liverpool, UK. A key theme of our approach to teaching and learning is to ensure a reasonable level of theoretical knowledge (as this helps to provide a solid basis to understanding), while placing at least asmuch emphasis on the application of theory to practice (to demonstrate what actually happens when theoretical ‘ideals’ come up against reality). For these reasons, the learning materials have been designed around a number of published research studies and information sources that address a variety of topics from around the world, including both developed and developing countries. The many aspects of study design and analysis illustrated by these studies provide examples which are used to help you understand the fundamental principles of good research, and to practise these techniques yourself.

The MPHprogramme on which this book is based consists of two postgraduate taught epidemiology and statistics modules, one Introductory and the other Advanced, each of which requires 150 hours of study (including assessments), and provides 15 postgraduate credits (1 unit).As students and tutors using the bookmay find it convenient to follow a similarmodulebased approach, the content of chapters has been organised to make this as simple as possible. The table summarising the content of each chapter on pages xvii to xix indicates which sections (together with page numbers) relate to the introductory programme, and which to the advanced programme.

The book also has a number of other features designed to enhance learning effectiveness, summarised in the following sections.