Comparative Analysis of Healthcare Research Methods

This report provides a comparative analysis of four distinct research methods used within the healthcare industry. It examines qualitative research, highlighting its strengths in detailed topic coverage and interpretation of social processes, while also acknowledging weaknesses such as data limitations and interpretation time. The report then explores quantitative research, emphasizing its accuracy in numerical results and its ability to answer specific questions, while also noting its potential for abstraction and challenges in ensuring reliability. Furthermore, it delves into mixed methods, showcasing its patient-centric approach and methodological flexibility, while addressing the increased resource requirements and complexity. Finally, the report discusses observational research, detailing its use in identifying trends and variables, its time-consuming nature, and the importance of training for observers to ensure data validity. Each method is evaluated in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, and implications for future research, providing a comprehensive overview for understanding and applying these methods in healthcare studies.

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COMMON ASSESSMENT PROJECT AND PEER REVIEWS 2
Research 1
In this research, the usage of social theory throughout and within the healthcare industry
has been highlighted. The main strengths of using qualitative research in the study are as follows:
All topics and the problems are completely covered throughout the research in a detailed manner,
in this study also helped to interpret the social processes and potentially explained the findings
also. On the contrary, some of the major weaknesses for performing this research are as follows:
The data that is collected in the study is limited in a small group as the assumptions cannot be
made beyond that, and it has been also observed that as the data is quite big in quantity so the
interpretation also takes a lot of time (Meyer and Ward, 2014).
In case of the validity of qualitative research, the major challenge starts from the
epistemology and ontology with regards to the issues that are being studied. Furthermore, for
enhancing the validity different methods were adopted.
Research 2
In this specific article quantitative research method has been considered for performing
this entire study. It has been observed that quantitative research also plays a vital role in the
healthcare segment. The main strengths of this research are: it provides almost accurate
numerical, statistical and mathematical results, and it also seeks to answers for the questions of
why, how, where, who and when (Leung, 2015). The major weaknesses of performing this
research are: The knowledge produced by this method can be quite general and abstract for direct
application to the particular local situations and individuals.

COMMON ASSESSMENT PROJECT AND PEER REVIEWS 3
The reliability with regards to the quantitative research mainly refers to the diversified
paradigms and it is quite challenging in this method. The validity generally means to which
extent a concept is particularly measured with regards to the quantitative study. It depends on the
study completely if it meets the exact criteria like it has met in this study then it can be termed as
valid. The recommendations for improvement are to use the new perspectives from the
quantitative method because it can help to assist an individual for the next research goal in this
segment.
Research 3
In this article, it has been showcased that the mixed methods have been used in the
healthcare industry. Mixed methods are one of the most emerging methodologies in the entire
field of research that mixed the qualitative and quantitative data together within a single
investigation (Wisdom and Creswell, 2013). It is the method that has been mainly born from the
social sciences and nowadays it is been used widely used in the medical and the science field
such as mental health, nursing, pharmacy, and etcetera. The main strengths of using this method
are: It reflects the patient's point of view, methodological flexibility is provided, and it also
contrasts the qualitative and quantitative data. The weaknesses of this method are: the Increased
amount is required by this method, the evaluations become quite complex in nature. In the mixed
method, various types of procedures for collecting data and obtaining that particular information
via different sources can enhance the reliability and validity of the data and its interpretation.
Research 4
Observational research that is a part of the quantitative research has been reflected
entirely in this study. It is an intervention with regards to the context of the research in the

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biomedical field for the purpose of the risk reduction strategy. Furthermore, in the observational
research, the results are mainly measured without the help of the researchers applying any kind
of intervention (Howlett, 2013). One of the biggest strength of this method is that it can be used
for identifying variables and trends of interest. The main disadvantage of this method is it is
quite time-consuming in nature. The reliability depends upon study and if the observational
techniques are unreliable then it results in highly invalid data. The future research needs robust
spectator training, crystal clear measurable criteria for evaluating the domain knowledge of the
researcher and the observational competence.

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References
Howlett, B. (2013). Healthcare Research Methods.
Leung, L. (2015). Validity, reliability, and generalizability in qualitative research. Journal of
family medicine and primary care, 4(3), 324.
Meyer, S., and Ward, P. (2014). ‘How to’use social theory within and throughout qualitative
research in healthcare contexts. Sociology Compass, 8(5), 525-539.
Wisdom, J., and Creswell, J. W. (2013). Mixed methods: integrating quantitative and qualitative
data collection and analysis while studying patient-centered medical home
models. Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.