Medical Research

Research in science has played a very fundamental role in our fight to stay fit and succeed against disease. In fact, it aids in the creation of new information and the proper means of using already existing information. It not only allows health providers to diagnose and treat diseases but it also allows evidence to be presented regarding policies and choices made with regard to health and development.

Indeed, research is one of the major priorities of the World Health Organization and its member countries. Health research has never been a priority for most developing countries in the region. In fact, a large number of countries lack the methodology for research. Therefore, many developing countries cannot carry out health research on their own. Therefore, many developing countries lack qualified researchers to carry out health research. Research on health and its management is either absent or not functional in many countries.

WHO has an interest in encouraging scientific research in developing countries. A defined WHO framework and approach on research and partnerships with Member States will further promote research capacity in developing countries. The Western Pacific Regional Office has collaborated on more than two dozen courses on health research design and methodology over the past twenty years. In 1992, the Regional Office released a training manual entitled Health Research Methodology: A Guide for Training in Research Methods. As a result of the extraordinary response from readers in all countries of the world to the editions in Chinese, Khmer, Laotian, Mongolian and Vietnamese, there was a growing demand to incorporate into the manual recent developments in research methodology and experience gained from earlier training courses thus paving the way for revision of the manual and its subsequent re-publication.

We hope that this typed version of that historic manual will serve as a tool to help scientists, researchers, health practitioners and administrators learn and practice the concepts and principles of scientific research. Their knowledge of scientific methods will enable them to design and execute research projects with precision in their respective countries. The launch of this new edition testifies to our continued commitment to assisting developing countries in the region to build and strengthen their health research systems.

Introduction

This is a revised version of an earlier manual on health research methodology which deals with the basic concepts and principles of scientific research methods, with a special focus on research in the health sector.

Indeed, among the most elementary processes is research, which forms the core of any country's information-based and effective efforts to improve the health of the people in general and the efficiency of the health system in particular with such dramatic epidemiological, demographic and economic changes affecting the system to a great extent.

The epidemiology of non-communicable diseases as well as newly emerging and pre-existing communicable diseases, reproductive, child health and nutrition as well as domestic or sexual violence, socio-behavioral, which refers to the analysis of people's health-seeking processes and their beliefs, knowledge, and practices regarding health and illness will enhance the efforts made against diseases among developing countries. This article will thus be a step-by-step guide from defining the problem to be formulated as a study to planning and the actual conduct of scientific research; including methods of data collection and statistical analysis as well as interpretation and presentation of results. This is a greatly expanded version, prepared partly as an appendix to an earlier version, which served extensively as a background document and workshop resource for several health research methodology workshops held in several countries of the Western Pacific region. Some of the most commonly used statistical techniques are explained in more detail, while questions raised in the workshops are clarified.

The scope of the subject has widened considerably. This is a reference guide used by the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office in training young scientists on the conduct of health science research. It is not a textbook on research methods, but rather a guide.

Several excellent textbooks and some of the texts from them will be cited again in this manual. Many examples have been taken from the field, in order to give some concrete examples of some of the principles and methods outlined in this manual. This will make the material more relevant in the regional context. It is useful to plan a research project by going through this manual, especially in preparing an application for a research grant from a donor agency. The enclosed copy of the WHO application form serves as a guide. The issues that are going to be discussed are bound to assist the researcher in narrowing down the issues of importance before proposing and undertaking a study.

It will also be very useful in writing thesis with a view to fulfilling the academic requirements of a degree in the health sector. Of course, we would expect that the handbook will provide the reader with some simple information about research methods in the health sector, but it should also inspire the reader to start making inquiries into that complex area of ​​research methodology and thereby increase the productivity of a young researcher in the field. It will bring more researchers into the healthcare sector, whether it is a clinical trial or regional epidemiology or healthcare studies.