Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Interventions
- 3 Evaluating an intervention
- 4 Randomized designs
- 5 Nonrandomized studies
- 6 Statistical analysis of intervention trials
- 7 Methods for adjusting for baseline differences between treatment groups
- 8 Time series analysis
- 9 Special topics
- 10 Research to action
- 11 Conclusion
- Index
11 - Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Interventions
- 3 Evaluating an intervention
- 4 Randomized designs
- 5 Nonrandomized studies
- 6 Statistical analysis of intervention trials
- 7 Methods for adjusting for baseline differences between treatment groups
- 8 Time series analysis
- 9 Special topics
- 10 Research to action
- 11 Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Studying interventions is hard work, especially when the interventions do not lend themselves to randomized controlled designs! This is one reason that risk-factor studies greatly outnumber intervention studies in many critical areas, such as disparities in health outcomes, HIV transmission, substance abuse, and violence.
But the pay-off of developing, studying, and translating interventions into practice – changing the world – is tremendous. Early in my career, I published many descriptive and risk-factor studies. They helped me hone my statistical skills and some may have been of help to others in designing interventions. But I am proudest of the work that I have done developing and implementing interventions, so much so that I no longer perform risk-factor studies (although I still help people with theirs, while trying to recruit them to do intervention studies). I hope that this book will recruit you to the world of intervention studies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Evaluating Clinical and Public Health InterventionsA Practical Guide to Study Design and Statistics, pp. 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010