Twenty-five strategies for improving the design, implementation and analysis of health services research related to alcohol and other drug abuse treatment
Ml. Dennis et al., Twenty-five strategies for improving the design, implementation and analysis of health services research related to alcohol and other drug abuse treatment, ADDICTION, 95, 2000, pp. S281-S308
Citations number
118
Categorie Soggetti
Public Health & Health Care Science","Clinical Psycology & Psychiatry
While some aspects of addiction can be studied in laboratory or controlled
settings, the study of long-term recovery management and the health service
s that support it requires going our into the community and dealing with po
pulations and systems that are much more diverse and less under our control
. This in turn raises many methodological challenges for the health service
researchers studying alcohol and other drug abuse treatment. This paper id
entifies some of these challenges related to the design, measurement, imple
mentation and effectiveness of health services research. It then recommends
25 strategies (and key primers) for addressing them: (1) identifying in ad
vance all stakeholders and issues; (2) developing conceptual models of inte
rvention and context; (3) identifying the population to whom the conclusion
s will be generalized; (4) matching the research design to the question; (5
) conducting randomized experiments only when appropriate and necessary; (6
) balancing methodological and treatment concerns; (7) prioritizing analysi
s plans and increasing design sensitivity, (8) combining qualitative and qu
antitative methods; (9) identifying the four basic types of measures needed
; (10) identifying and using standardized measures; (11) carefully balancin
g measurement selection and modification; (12) developing and evaluating mo
dified and new measures when necessary; (13) identifying and tracking major
clinical subgroups; (14) measuring and analyzing the actual pattern of ser
vices received; (15) incorporating implementation checks into the design; (
16) incorporating baseline measures into the intervention; (17) monitoring
implementation and dosage as a form of quality assurance; (18) developing p
rocedures early to facilitate tracking and follow-up of study participants;
(19) using more appropriate representations of the actual experiment; (20)
using appropriate and sensitive standard deviation terms; (21) partialing
out variance due to design or known sources prior to estimating experimenta
l effect sizes; (22) using dimensional, interval and ratio measures to incr
ease sensitivity to change; (23) using path or structural equation models;
(24) integrating qualitative and quantitative analysis into reponing; and (
25) using quasi-experiments, economic or organizational studies to answer o
ther likely policy questions. Most of these strategies have been tried and
tested in this and other areas, bur are not widely used. Improving the stat
e of the art of health services research and bridging the gap between resea
rch and practice do not depend upon using the most advanced methods, but ra
ther upon using the most appropriate methods.