Note On Research Design For The Study Of Community Participation In Health Care Programmes

• Main Author: Rifkin Susan B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 1986-01-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Community Medicine
• Online Access: http://www.ijcm.org.in/article.asp?issn=0970-0218;year=1986;volume=11;issue=3;spage=173;epage=183;aulast=Rifkin;type=0

After describing types of research designs for the study of community participation in health care programmes, this paper examines one methodology, the quantitative methodology, the quantitative methodology, in detail. It presents some of the major attractions and limitations of this approach. The attractions include the need for evaluation of success and failure and of cost effectiveness of programmes. The limitations include the inability of the approach to deal with definitions and interventions that cannot be quantitified and the difficulty of identifying casual relationship between interventions and outcomes. These characteristics are illustrated by a case by a medical school in Asia. Research design, research developments and research outcomes are described and analysed. The paper concludes that an alternative analysis which examines the linkages between participation and health improvements would be more useful as it would allow the political, social and economic dimensions of community participation to be examined.