Macias Cathaleene, Gold Paul B, Hargreaves William A, Aronson Elliot, Bickman Leonard, Barreira Paul J, Jones Danson R, Rodican Charles F, Fisher William H
Community Intervention Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02478, USA.
Adm Policy Ment Health. 2009 Sep;36(5):331-42. doi: 10.1007/s10488-009-0224-0. Epub 2009 May 12.
Random assignment to a preferred experimental condition can increase service engagement and enhance outcomes, while assignment to a less-preferred condition can discourage service receipt and limit outcome attainment. We examined randomized trials for one prominent psychiatric rehabilitation intervention, supported employment, to gauge how often assignment preference might have complicated the interpretation of findings. Condition descriptions, and greater early attrition from services-as-usual comparison conditions, suggest that many study enrollees favored assignment to new rapid-job-placement supported employment, but no study took this possibility into account. Reviews of trials in other service fields are needed to determine whether this design problem is widespread.
随机分配到更受青睐的实验条件可以提高服务参与度并增强效果,而分配到较不受青睐的条件则可能阻碍服务接受并限制效果的达成。我们研究了一项针对一种著名的精神康复干预措施——支持性就业的随机试验,以评估分配偏好可能在多大程度上使研究结果的解释变得复杂。条件描述以及常规对照条件下更高的早期退出率表明,许多研究参与者倾向于被分配到新的快速就业安置支持性就业项目,但没有研究考虑到这种可能性。需要对其他服务领域的试验进行综述,以确定这种设计问题是否普遍存在。