Lecture 1: Course Introduction Dr. Rineke Vasse

Lecture 1: Course Introduction (Dr. Rineke Vasse)

Topics

• Week 1: Non-experimental designs

• Week 2: Experimental designs

• Weeks 3 & 4: Special issues

• Sample size calculation
• Responsive evaluation

CPHI: Complex Public Health Interventions

• Examples of complex public health interventions:

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Why is evaluation of CPHI so difficult?• CPHI intervene at multiple levels

• The regular ‘gold standard’ of RCTs is not suitable
• Alternative gold standard: Cluster randomised trial (cRCT) (e.g. at a school, or

a community level) but requires more clusters/participants

• More advanced multilevel analysis

o Good alternatives: non-experimental designs

• Program evaluation

• Outcome evaluation (assessing the effects of an intervention)
• Process evaluation (assessing the intervention’s development,

implementation, and evaluation)

o Most important: Can the outcomes be attributed to the intervention?

(internal validity)

• In summary, creativity is required to assess the intervention compared to

conventional RCTs Learning Goals • Sensitise students for the advantages and disadvantages of different program evaluation methods • Enable students to match program evaluation to particular conditions

• Regarding program evaluation you will know:

• What research methods are gold standard
• What research methods are good alternatives
• How process evaluation complements outcome evaluation
• How you can study interventions’ working mechanisms
• How you can combine quantitative and qualitative methods in program

evaluation (mixed-methods)

• What checklists you can use for critical appraisal

• Regarding the special issues you will know:

• What implications a cluster design has for sample size calculation
• What implications a participatory approach has for evaluation methods

• Regarding non-experimental and experimental designs, you will be able to use

statistical data-analysis methods to test:

• Program outcomes
• How program outcomes depend on process measures

▪ = testing the intervention’s mechanisms of effects Practical 1: Case: ‘We are the medicine ourselves’

• Program outcome: Awareness of dementia risk being modifiable

• Does the awareness of dementia risk being modifiable at post test depend on the level of exposure to the campaign (posters, app, etc)?Practical 2: Case: ‘Vitality@CHEM’ 2 / 3

• Program outcome: Vitality

• Does the improvement in vitality depend on the frequency of personal contact with the vitality coach?

Practical 3: Several cases

• Regarding experimental designs, you will be able to apply:

• Sample size calculation methods
• RCT & cRCT

Practical 4: ‘Exhale’

• Regarding participatory designs, you will be able to apply:

• Responsive evaluation methods within participatory action research

▪ Transcripts, field notes and thematic analysis (EPH1023)

EPH2242: Year 2 Paper

• Compared to Year 1 Paper, this paper is:

o More substantial: more systematic approach and more empirical studies

• Critical appraisal of research methods employed by the studies reviewed in

the paper

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