Research design issues for evaluating complex multicomponent interventions in neighborhoods and communities
Open accessAbstract
Major advances in population health will not occur unless we translate existing knowledge into effective multicomponent interventions, implement and maintain these in communities, and develop rigorous translational research and evaluation methods to ensure continual improvement and sustainability. We discuss challenges and offer approaches to evaluation that are key for translational research stages 3 to 5 to advance optimized adoption, implementation, and maintenance of effective and replicable multicomponent strategies. The major challenges we discuss concern (a) multiple contexts of evaluation/research, (b) complexity of packages of interventions, and (c) phases of evaluation/research questions. We suggest multiple alternative research designs that maintain rigor but accommodate these challenges and highlight the need for measurement systems. Longitudinal data collection and a standardized continuous measurement system are fundamental to the evaluation and refinement of complex multicomponent interventions. To be useful to T3-T5 translational research efforts in neighborhoods and communities, such a system would include assessments of the reach, implementation, effects on immediate outcomes, and effects of the comprehensive intervention package on more distal health outcomes.
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This tension between controlled experiments and more complex, community interventions is highlighted elsewhere in the literature, with no single methodology being advocated.
“This tension between controlled experiments and more complex, community interventions is highlighted elsewhere in the literature, with no single methodology being advocated (Nutbeam, 1998; Domegan et al., 2016; Komro et al., 2016; Wong et al., 2017).”
From Blue care: a systematic review of blue space interventions for health and wellbeing (2020) · cites this paper as Komro et al., 2016
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- Authors
- Komro, K. A., Flay, B. R., Biglan, A., & Wagenaar, A. C.
- Affiliations
- Emory University (US)
- Oregon State University (US)
- Oregon Research Institute (US)
- University of Florida (US)
- Corresponding author
- Komro, Kelli A.
- Venue
- Translational Behavioral Medicine
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-11-06
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 153-159
- ISSN
- 1613-9860 (ISSN-L)
- 1869-6716
- PMC
- PMC4807196
- OpenAlex
- W2137834590
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 6.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Translational Behavioral Medicine (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA028946)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Evaluation and Performance Assessment
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Community Health and Development
- Keywords
- multicomponent intervention, complex interventions, community-based intervention, neighborhood health, intervention evaluation, research design, translational research, longitudinal data collection, intervention reach, population health
- MeSH terms
- Environment, Evaluation Studies as Topic, Health Policy, Humans, Research Design, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Translational Research, Biomedical
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