David L. Streiner - Böcker

Health Measurement Scales is the ultimate guide to appraising, developing, and validating measurement scales that are used in the health sciences. Written in a clear and practical style, this guide enables clinicians and researchers to both develop scales to measure subjective states and non-tangible health outcomes, as well as evaluate and differentiate among existing tools.Topics presented in the order that scales are constructed: how the individual items are developed, biases that can affect responses, various response options, how to select the best items in the set, how to combine them into a scale; and finally how to determine the reliability and validity of the scale.Fully updated to reflect recent developments in the field and the latest survey methods. The new edition contains updated information on generalizability theory and item response theory, and integration of qualitative research methods into scale design and testing. Including guidelines, appendices and checklists, this useful book is a must-read for any practitioner dealing with any kind of subjective measurement.

Do statistics-heavy research papers give you a headache? Are you baffled by bias, confused by correlation, or flummoxed by F-tests? A Guide for the Statistically Perplexed is here to help! This book is designed to assist students, clinicians, and researchers in becoming familiar with statistical and research techniques by covering the essentials of the topic and drawing attention to many common problem areas.Inspired to write on this topic in reaction to mistakes he encountered in actual papers, David L. Streiner uses his trademark sense of humour and light-hearted style to explain complex statistical concepts in lucid, jargon-free language. Streiner delves into topics such as presenting data (or, conversely, how not to), statistical techniques, and more advanced procedures. To help readers detect problems with research design and interpretation, he details important ‘CRAP’ (convoluted reasoning or anti-intellectual pomposity) detectors for which they should watch out.Even those with little or no background in statistics, measurement theory, or research will come out of A Guide for the Statistically Perplexed with a new understanding and appreciation of these topics.

Had you looked up “quality of life” (QOL) in Index Medicus premature deaths. Procedures ranging from joint replacement priorto1975,yoursearchwouldhavebeenfruitless. Although and coronary bypass surgery to treatments for arthritis and thetermwasmostlikely?rstintroducedbyKarnofskyin1949 sleep disturbances do little to increase longevity; rather, they within the realm of chemotherapy for cancer patients (1), it make it easier for the person to function in his or her daily was not used as a key word in Index Medicus for another 26 life. A cynical perspective would say that clinicians are now interested in QOL to justify their existence, as interventions years. Since that time, there has been an exponential growth in such as hip replacement cannot be rationalized on the basis the number of articles about QOL. Figure 1 shows the number of preserving lives. However, as people live longer, they do of unique articles cited each year in Medline and PsycInfo: 7 in fact become more susceptible to disorders and conditions in 1970, 331 in 1980, not quite 1800 in 1990, slightly over that interfere with activities of daily living and consequently 6000 in 2000, and nearly 11,000 in 2005. Once the domain of decrease their QOL. mainly medicine and psychology, QOL has found its way into A second factor is the realization that QOL is not syno- every aspect of health care, including physiotherapy, oc- mous with the absence of symptoms: patients with serious pational therapy, social work, nursing, and others.

Few behavioral or health science studies proceed seamlessly. This refreshingly candid guide presents firsthand vignettes of obstacles on the bumpy road of research and offers feasible, easy-to-implement solutions. Contributors from a range of disciplines describe real-world problems at each stage of a quantitative or qualitative research project—from gaining review board approval to collecting and analyzing data—and discuss how these problems were resolved. A detailed summary chart helps readers quickly find material on specific issues, methods, and settings. Written with clarity and wit, the vignettes provide exemplars of critical thinking that researchers can apply when developing the operational plan of a study or when facing practical difficulties in a particular research phase.Winner--American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award!