Tag Archives: research methods

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Improvement science and research methods seminar on discourse analysis given by Michael Toze

CaHRU Website

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2015/06/Toze-Discourse-Analysis.pdf” responsive=”no”]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

mtozeThe latest ‘Improvement science and research methods seminar’ on ‘Discourse analysis’ was delivered by Michael Toze, doctoral student at CaHRU. Discourse analysis aims to study the use of oral and textual communication in relation to meaning beyond the words, social context and thought and focuses on analysing how speech and text are organised to achieve an end. The speaker went on to explain related methods such as conversation analysis, content analysis, critical discourse analysis and ethnomethodology an their applications. Finally, Michael described how he was using discourse analysis in his doctoral research exploring competing discourses about sexuality, gender identity and health in LGBT people interacting with general practice staff. The seminar was well attended by colleagues from CaHRU, the School of Health and Social Care, and researchers from Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust and East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust.


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Improvement science and methods seminars: case control and self controlled case series designs

A new series of Improvement Science and Method Seminars led by Zahid Asghar, senior lecturer in health, began with our first workshop on 19 October 2012.  Zahid led the attendees, which included academic and health service staff working with the Community and Health Research Group, through case-control studies and touched on the self-controlled case series method. There have been only forty or so studies published using this novel method in the worldwide literature including one study published by the team last year in the prestigious Vaccine: Gwini SM, Coupland C, Siriwardena AN. The effect of influenza vaccination on risk of acute myocardial infarction: self-controlled case-series study. Vaccine 2011; 29: 1145-1149. 

Zahid is currently working on an NIHR Research for Patient Benefit study looking at the possible association between influenza  or pneumococcal vaccination and stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) (IPVASTIA), which he used to illustrate the two study types. There have been a number of studies investigating the link between respiratory infections as a trigger for heart attack or stroke and the possible protective effect of influenza vaccination including a study published by the group in the Canadian Medical Association Journal two years ago:  Siriwardena AN, Gwini S, Coupland C. Influenza vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination, and the risk of acute myocardial infarction: matched case-control study. Canadian Medical Association Journal 2010; 182 (15): 1617- 1623.