Rohrer James E
Employee and Community Health, Mayo Clinic-Rochester, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
J Public Health Manag Pract. 2009 Mar-Apr;15(2):109-11. doi: 10.1097/01.PHH.0000346006.59275.1e.
Evaluators of public health programs in field settings cannot always randomize subjects into experimental or control groups. By default, they may choose to employ the weakest study design available: the pretest, posttest approach without a comparison group. This essay argues that natural experiments involving comparison groups are within reach of public health program managers. Methods for analyzing natural experiments are discussed.
在实地环境中对公共卫生项目进行评估的人员并不总是能够将受试者随机分配到实验组或对照组。默认情况下，他们可能会选择采用现有的最薄弱的研究设计：即没有对照组的前测、后测方法。本文认为，涉及对照组的自然实验对于公共卫生项目经理来说是可行的。文中还讨论了分析自然实验的方法。
