Innovative study designs and methods for optimizing and implementing behavioral interventions to improve health.

OBJECTIVE: Improving diet, activity level, and medication adherence and controlling tobacco and other substance use have all been shown to produce measurable, cost-effective improvements in health outcomes. However, many individuals do not respond to available treatments, and efficacious interventions are often not brought to scale. Developing and implementing more potent behavioral treatments in diverse populations to ultimately improve public health involves a focus on behavioral intervention research across the translational spectrum. There has been little attention paid to designs, methods, and analytic techniques for early phase trials.

METHOD: The National Institutes of Health sponsored a cross-institute, 2-day Workshop on Innovative Study Designs and Methods for Developing, Testing and Implementing Behavioral Interventions to Improve Health to review, evaluate, and disseminate a selection of innovative designs and analytic strategies for use in behavioral intervention studies.

RESULTS: The workshop was organized to reflect methods appropriate for use across the translational spectrum. Because of the historical attention paid to the randomized clinical trial, the workshop placed particular emphasis on the designing and preliminary testing of behavioral interventions, the optimization of interventions, and the later effectiveness and implementation of trials.

CONCLUSIONS: This article provides a summary of the methods discussed at the workshop, with recommendations for their use to improve the impact, reach, and cost-effectiveness of behavioral intervention research across the translational spectrum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).