New book on multi-level analysis provides practical guidance for healthcare researchers

With their new book "Multilevel Modelling for Public Health and Health Services Research", Nivel researcher Prof. Peter Groenewegen and his Scottish colleague Prof. Alastair Leyland offer a clear introduction to the research method of multilevel analysis. In addition, the reader is given the opportunity to practice on the basis of 'tutorials', educational chapters with supplied data sets. The book is free to download, as is the software package with the data sets.

Multi-level analysis (MLA) is a statistical technique that is increasingly used in health (care) research.

The importance of MLA in healthcare research is multifaceted
The authors first of all explain the importance of MLA for researchers in health and healthcare. They mention several arguments: many researchers want to apply MLA themselves; basic knowledge is required for the assessment of research using MLA; this basic knowledge is also necessary to recognize the limitations of research in which MLA has not been applied.

Tutorials with a software package to practice yourself
Furthermore, the book includes three "tutorials", chapters that explain step by step how a number of sample analyses can be done with MLwiN and the datasets. The reader can also practice applying MLA on the basis of these datasets. Both a freeware version of the MLwiN software package and the datasets can be downloaded for free.

International success
The book is the result of a course that the authors have given in many countries since 1999. And successfully:
Juan Merlo, Professor of Social Epidemiology, Lund University: ‘Leyland and Groenewegen have a long international experience in teaching together multilevel modelling to public health and health services researchers. Their experience makes the structure of this book and accompanying tutorials especially worthwhile for those aiming to gain a practical introduction to multilevel analysis.’

S. (Subu) V. Subramanian, Professor of Population Health and Geography, Harvard University: ‘Comprehensive and insightful. A must for anyone interested in applications of multilevel modelling to population health.’

This open access book is published by Springer,where it can be downloaded.