ArticleEmerging themes in epidemiology2017
Randomised and non-randomised studies to estimate the effect of community-level public health interventions: definitions and methodological considerations.
Article in Emerging themes in epidemiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Can Non-Randomised Studies of Interventions Provide Unbiased Effect Estimates? A Systematic Review of Internal Replication Studies.Evaluation review · 2023Pooled it
- Are OMERACT recommendations followed in clinical trials on fibromyalgia? A systematic review of patient-reported outcomes and their measures.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2023Pooled it
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- Emergency care with lay responders in underserved populations: a systematic review.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2021Pooled it
- Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Pooled it
- The effects of diagnosis-related groups payment on hospital healthcare in China: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2020Pooled it
- The impact of pharmacist involvement on immunization uptake and other outcomes: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of the American Pharmacists Association : JAPhAPooled it
- Acute physiological and perceptual responses in the FIT FIRST FOR ALL school-based physical activity program.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Real-World Before-After Study ofNutrients · 2026Article
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- Supporting unpaid carers during section 17 leave from mental health in-patient wards: carer and practitioner perspectives.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- Health-related quality of life findings from the Faroe Islands FIT FIRST FOR ALL school-based physical activity study.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Adapted Taekwondo Improves Postural Balance and Health-Related Quality of Life Concerning Multicomponent Training and Walking Exercise in Older Females: A Randomized Controlled Trial (TKD and Aging Project).Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- PROTOCOL: Key characteristics of effective preschool-based interventions to promote self-regulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Campbell systematic reviews · 2024Article
- Effect of Rural Trauma Team Development on the Outcomes of Motorcycle Accident-Related Injuries (Motor Registry Project): Protocol for a Multicenter Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Antiseptic Agents for Chronic Wounds: A Systematic Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Impacts of an Urban Sanitation Intervention on Fecal Indicators and the Prevalence of Human Fecal Contamination in Mozambique.Environmental science & technology · 2021Article
- Effects of Community-Based Physical-Cognitive Training, Health Education, and Reablement among Rural Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Mobility Deficits.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Role of Cold Balanced Salt Solution (BSS) in the Prophylaxis of Cystoid Macular Edema After Cataract Surgery: A Prospective Randomized Study.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
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Abstract
backgroundThe preferred method to evaluate public health interventions delivered at the level of whole communities is the cluster randomised trial (CRT). The practical limitations of CRTs and the need for alternative methods continue to be debated. There is no consensus on how to classify study designs to evaluate interventions, and how different design features are related to the strength of evidence. ANALYSIS: This article proposes that most study designs for the evaluation of cluster-level interventions fall into four broad categories: the CRT, the non-randomised cluster trial (NCT), the controlled before-and-after study (CBA), and the before-and-after study without control (BA). A CRT needs to fulfil two basic criteria: (1) the intervention is allocated at random; (2) there are sufficient clusters to allow a statistical between-arm comparison. In a NCT, statistical comparison is made across trial arms as in a CRT, but treatment allocation is not random. The defining feature of a CBA is that intervention and control arms are not compared directly, usually because there are insufficient clusters in each arm to allow a statistical comparison. Rather, baseline and follow-up measures of the outcome of interest are compared in the intervention arm, and separately in the control arm. A BA is a CBA without a control group.
conclusionEach design may provide useful or misleading evidence. A precise baseline measurement of the outcome of interest is critical for causal inference in all studies except CRTs. Apart from statistical considerations the exploration of pre/post trends in the outcome allows a more transparent discussion of study weaknesses than is possible in non-randomised studies without a baseline measure.
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