Comparative and Cross-cultural Health Research

This book describes concepts and methods for comparing health, treatments, organisations, health systems, policies, health reforms and interventions to health organisations. Comparative research - and especially cross-cultural research - is more demanding of conceptual and practical research skills than many other types of research. Greater care is needed in sampling, in ensuring valid and reliable data collection, and in regocnising and assessing confounders. This text aims to give an introduction to comparative health research for both researchers and users of research, such as managers, policy-makers and practitioners.