Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the context for researching health / Mike Saks and Judith Allsop -- Competing paradigms and health research: design and process / Alex Broom and Evan Willis -- Doing a literature review in health / Kathryn Jones -- Using documents in health research / Andy Alaszewski -- Unstructured and semi-structured interviews in health research / Jacqueline Low -- Participant observation in health research / David Hughes -- The use of focus groups in research into health / Judith Green -- Action research and health / Heather Waterman -- Health research sampling methods / Peter Davis, Alastair Scott and Martin von Randow -- Quantitative survey methods in health research / Michael Calnan -- Statistical methods for health data analysis / George Argyrous -- Randomized controlled trials / George Lewith and Paul Little -- Experimental methods in health research / A. Niroshan Siriwardena -- The use of economics in health research / Alan Maynard -- Governance and ethics in health research / Priscilla Alderson -- Researching complementary and alternative medicine / Janet Richardson and Mike Saks -- Researching the health of ethnic minority groups / Mark R.D. Johnson -- Gender and health research / Ellen Kuhlmann and Ellen Annandale -- Public health research / Stephen Gillam, Penny Cavenagh, and Peter Bradley -- Involving the user in health research / Sophie Hill -- Comparative health research / Viola Burau -- Mixed methods and multidisciplinary research in health care / Jonathan Tritter -- The research process and writing up health research / Judith Allsop and Mike Saks -- Disseminating and using health research / Mike Saks and Judith Allsop.

'Researching Health' covers the background to conducting health research, qualitative and quantitative methods employed in researching health, contemporary issues such as research ethics, comparative research and the use of mixed methods, and how to disseminate health research.