The growing importance of the evidence-based movement has made experimental evaluation a key issue among researchers, practitioners, commissioners and policy makers. However, experimental evaluation remains controversial in the sexual health field. This partly reflects the diversity of groups involved in this area and their different views on the most appropriate research methods. This book provides an analysis of the methodological and practical issues involved in evaluatingsexual health interventions. The book will appeal to trial enthusiasts through discussion of specific issues in trial design, and also to those with a sceptical interest in the potential of experimentation and its appropriateness or feasibility. It is concerned with methodology rather than the substantive findings of research, and considers the requirements of research in both developed and developing countries. The focus of the book is on sexual health interventions, although many of the issues are equally applicableto other areas of behavioural and social research
Section 1 - To experiment or not?; Sexual health interventions should be subject to experimental evaluation; Sexual health interventions are unsuitable for experimental evaluation; The role of randomized controlled trials in assessing sexual health interventions; Section 2 - Methodological issues in the experimental evaluation of sexual health interventions; Using theories of behaviour change to develop and evaluate sexual health interventions; Stages in the development and evaluation of complex interventions; Choice of experimental design; Cluster randomized trials of sexual health interventions; Biological, behavioural and psychosocial outcome measures; Developing and validating complex behavioural outcome measures; Unpacking the black box: the importance of process data to explain outcomes; Section 3 - What happens after a trial is completed?; Generalizability of trials and implementation of research into practice; The limits of generalizability: community-based sexual health interventions among gay men; The value of systematic reviews of the effectiveness of sexual health interventions; Challenges for future sexual health intervention trials;
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