Development of an Instrument to Characterize Methodological and Collaborative Factors that May Influence Community-Based Clinician Post-Trial Adoption of Clinical Research Interventions

Abstract

Participation in clinical research trials has been hypothesized to facilitate the adoption of evidence-based practices by community-based substance abuse treatment providers. However, little empirical information is available regarding the methodological and collaborative characteristics of research trials that may affect the chances of adoption. The current paper describes the development of the Survey of Practiced Research Efforts to Aid Dissemination (SPREAD), a standardized instrument designed to measure characteristics of clinical trials that may facilitate adoption. The survey was administered to a sample of 33 community-based research trials from the top four impact factor journals of 2007. Overall, methodological quality was high and levels of collaboration were low, with little involvement of community-based clinic staff in most study related activities. Future research to determine the predictive validity of the SPREAD instrument on post-trial adoption of studies interventions in clinical research is encouraged.Keywords Substance abuse . Dissemination . Implementation . Adoption . Community-based research A gap still exists between research and practice in substance abuse treatment, leading to significant efforts to identify factors that may influence dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices. Community-based clinic participation in research trials may be one viable means of influencing organizational and individual practices and post-trial adoption of evidence-based practices has been highlighted as an innovative method to facilitate the Int J Ment Health Addiction (2014) (Guydish et al., 2007). While exposure to interventions during clinical research trials may promote adoption of evidence-practices, the methodological characteristics of the clinical trials themselves, and the nature and degree of collaboration between research and community-based clinical staff are all likely to influence whether participation in a clinical trial increases, decreases, or has no impact on post-trial adoption decisions. In some cases, participation in clinical trials may be aversive, and leave community treatment providers with negative impressions of both the research process and the interventions under investigation (Guydish et al., 2005). In other cases, involvement of key community stake holders and interventionists has resulted in positive research experiences and successful post-trial adoption (Ozer et al., 2008). These alternative experiences can lead to differential rates of adoption and missed opportunities to disseminate evidence-based practices through community-based clinical research. The present report is the first empirical effort to measure community-based research trial factors that may influence post-trial adoption through the development of a standardized instrument (Survey of Practiced Research Efforts to Aid Dissemination; SPREAD). We provide normative data for the instrument from a sample of 33 published substance abuse clinical trials. Future trials may use the ins...