Subject eligibility criteria can substantially influence the results of alcohol-treatment outcome research.
Objective: Most alcohol-treatment studies exclude some patients from participation based on particular criteria (e.g., comorbid illegal drug abuse, homelessness). The current study evaluated whether such eligibility criteria can change the outcome results a study obtains.Method: Five widely used tre...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs Vol. 69; no. 5; pp. 757 - 765 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
| Formato: | research Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Alcohol Research Documentation
Sep2008
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=105636522&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 105636522 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 19371888 30V1 jtl: Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs issn: 19371888 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2008 vid: 69 iid: 5 pid: 343 pub: Alcohol Research Documentation place: Piscataway, New Jersey artinfo: ui: 105636522 105636522 NLM18781251 2010173159 10.15288/jsad.2008.69.757 NLM18781251 105636522 ppf: 757 ppct: 8 formats: tig: atl: Subject eligibility criteria can substantially influence the results of alcohol-treatment outcome research. aug: au: Humphreys K Harris AH Weingardt KR Humphreys, Keith Harris, Alex H S Weingardt, Kenneth R affil: Center for Health Care Evaluation, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, 795 Willow Road, (152), Menlo Park, California 94025, USA sug: subj: Alcohol Rehabilitation Programs Outcome Assessment Methods Patient Selection Bias (Research) Clinical Trials Methods Protocols Study Design Standards Treatment Outcomes Human ab: Objective: Most alcohol-treatment studies exclude some patients from participation based on particular criteria (e.g., comorbid illegal drug abuse, homelessness). The current study evaluated whether such eligibility criteria can change the outcome results a study obtains.Method: Five widely used treatment research eligibility criteria--(1) psychiatric problems, (2) medical problems, (3) social-residential instability, (4) low motivation/noncompliance, and (5) drug problems--were applied to two samples of real-world alcohol patients whose outcomes were known. Comparing outcomes of the samples with and without the application of eligibility criteria produced estimates of bias in outcome results, as well as an assessment of change in statistical power.Results: Medical and psychiatric eligibility criteria produced a moderate bias in outcome estimates (e.g., a 10% or less change in outcome results). In contrast, social-residential instability, low motivation/noncompliance, and drug use produced a large (e.g., up to an 18% change) to a very large (e.g., up to a 51% change) bias in outcome estimates. Sensitivity analyses showed that these biases are even larger if eligibility criteria are operationalized in a broad rather than a narrow fashion. Contrary to expectation, eligibility criteria did not produce their theoretically expected benefit of increased statistical power.Conclusions: Researchers who use eligibility criteria should do so judiciously and interpret outcome results in light of potential bias introduced by the ineligibility of some patients for study enrollment. Efforts to integrate findings across treatment outcome studies should also consider how conclusions might be affected by the eligibility criteria used in different research areas. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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