- Title
- Key design considerations using a cohort stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial in evaluating community-based interventions : lessons learnt from an Australian domiciliary aged care intervention evaluation
- Creator
- Mohebbi,Mohammadreza; Sanagou, Masoumeh; Ottmann, Goetz
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/182139
- Identifier
- vital:16076
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-6029.2017.06.03.4
- Identifier
- ISBN:1929-6029
- Abstract
- The ‘stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial’ (SW-CRT) harbours promise when for ethical or practical reasons the recruitment of a control group is not possible or when a staggered implementation of an intervention is required. Yet SW-CRT designs can create considerable challenges in terms of methodological integration, implementation, and analysis. While cross-sectional methods in participants recruitment of the SW-CRT have been discussed in the literature the cohort method is a novel feature that has not been considered yet. This paper provides a succinct overview of the methodological, analytical, and practical aspects of cohort SW-CRTs.We discuss five issues that are of special relevance to SW-CRTs. First, issues relating to the design, secondly size of clusters and sample size; thirdly, dealing with missing data in the fourth place analysis; and finally, the advantages and disadvantages of SW-CRTs are considered. An Australian study employing a cohort SW-CRT to evaluate a domiciliary aged care intervention is used as case study. The paper concludes that the main advantage of the cohort SW-CRT is that the intervention rolls out to all participants. There are concerns about missing a whole cluster, and difficulty of completing clusters in a given time frame due to involvement frail older people. Cohort SW-CRT designs can be successfully used within public health and health promotion context. However, careful planning is required to accommodate methodological, analytical, and practical challenges.
- Relation
- International journal of statistics in medical research Vol. 6, no. 3 (2017), p. 123-133
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright © 2022 Lifescience Global Canada Inc.
- Subject
- 4203 Health Services and Systems; 4206 Public Health; 4905 Statistics; Clinical trials,; Stepped wedge design,; Missing data; Sample size; Cluster randomized trial
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