Murray Elizabeth, Khadjesari Zarnie, White Ian R, Kalaitzaki Eleftheria, Godfrey Christine, McCambridge Jim, Thompson Simon G, Wallace Paul
University College London, Director, E-health Unit, Archway Campus, Highgate Hill, London N19 5LW, UK.
J Med Internet Res. 2009 Apr 3;11(2):e9. doi: 10.2196/jmir.1052.
Health care and health care services are increasingly being delivered over the Internet. There is a strong argument that interventions delivered online should also be evaluated online to maximize the trial's external validity. Conducting a trial online can help reduce research costs and improve some aspects of internal validity. To date, there are relatively few trials of health interventions that have been conducted entirely online. In this paper we describe the major methodological issues that arise in trials (recruitment, randomization, fidelity of the intervention, retention, and data quality), consider how the online context affects these issues, and use our experience of one online trial evaluating an intervention to help hazardous drinkers drink less (DownYourDrink) to illustrate potential solutions. Further work is needed to develop online trial methodology.
医疗保健及医疗保健服务越来越多地通过互联网提供。有充分的理由认为，在线提供的干预措施也应进行在线评估，以最大限度地提高试验的外部效度。在线开展试验有助于降低研究成本，并改善内部效度的某些方面。迄今为止，完全在网上进行的健康干预试验相对较少。在本文中，我们描述了试验中出现的主要方法学问题（招募、随机化、干预的保真度、保留率和数据质量），考虑了在线环境如何影响这些问题，并利用我们对一项评估帮助危险饮酒者减少饮酒量的干预措施（“减少饮酒量”）的在线试验的经验来说明潜在的解决方案。还需要进一步开展工作来开发在线试验方法。
