Out of the Closet, into the Archives

This comprehensive handbook, with contributions from internationally recognized scholars in the social sciences and health disciplines, addresses three fundamental conceptual, methodological, and practice questions arising in health research: (1) What constitutes evidence in health interventions? (2) How can the current notion of evidence be expanded to incorporate contributions from qualitative research? (3) How can qualitative evidence enhance outcomes of practices in health interventions in a wide range of medical conditions? This handbook broadens and shapes the understanding of evidence-based practice in health interventions, facilitates the transdisciplinarity of health research, and enhances the long overdue contribution of qualitative research evidence to health research, policy, and practice. Qualitative research refers to empirically oriented research studies that use methods that are not primarily or solely quantitative. Such studies tend to focus on multidimensionality and context of participants' experience and emphasize nonlinearity. The importance of expanding the understanding of qualitative research evidence in psychosocial health interventions is based on issues of patient diversity and the uniqueness of patient care and health actions and associated social and cultural contexts.