Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are an increasingly common research design for evaluating the effectiveness of community college (CC) interventions. However, when planning an RCT evaluation of a CC intervention, there is limited empirical information about what sized effects an intervention might reasonably achieve, which can lead to under- or…

The purpose of this study is to explore the views of autistic adults on randomised controlled trials, specifically on processes such as randomisation and blinding, to understand the barriers and facilitators for recruiting autistic people to randomised controlled trials involving medications. We conducted one-to-one interviews with 49 autistic…

The COVID-19 pandemic touched off an unprecedented search for vaccines and treatments. Without question, the development of vaccines to prevent COVID-19 was an enormous scientific accomplishment. Further, the RECOVERY and Solidarity trials identified effective treatments for COVID-19. But all was not success. The urgent need for COVID-19…

Recent reviews of the educational intervention literature have noted patterns of intervention impact fadeout on cognitive skills, whereby skill trajectories between children in the intervention and control group converge in the years following the end of the intervention. Some early childhood education (ECE) researchers have suggested that skill…

Violence is a major public health problem globally, with the highest rates in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the Americas and southern Africa. Parenting programmes in high-income countries can diminish risk for violence, by reducing risk factors such as child aggression and harsh parenting, and increasing protective factors such as…

The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in community colleges. Yet, there is limited empirical information on the design parameters necessary to plan the sample size for RCTs in this context. We provide empirical estimates of key design parameters, discussing lessons based on the pattern…

Autistic people are more likely to have co-occurring mental health conditions compared to the general population, and mental health interventions have been identified as a top research priority by autistic people and the wider autism community. Autistic adults have also communicated that quality of life is the outcome that matters most to them in…

Background: Meta-analysis is considered to be the gold standard for evidence synthesis. It involves combining data from multiple independent sources to produce a summary estimate with improved precision. Traditionally, meta-analysis methods have been applied to a large collection of studies, and past research efforts have indicated its numerous…

Rare events meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are often underpowered because the outcomes are infrequent. Real-world evidence (RWE) from non-randomized studies may provide valuable complementary evidence about the effects of rare events, and there is growing interest in including such evidence in the decision-making process.…

This study examined bias reduction in the eight nonequivalent comparison group designs (NECGDs) that result from combining (a) choice of a local versus non-local comparison group, and analytic use or not of (b) a pretest measure of the study outcome and (c) a rich set of other covariates. Bias was estimated as the difference in causal estimate…

Multi-site randomized controlled trials (RCTs) provide unbiased estimates of the average impact in the study sample. However, their ability to accurately predict the impact for individual sites outside the study sample, to inform local policy decisions, is largely unknown. To extend prior research on this question, we analyzed six multi-site RCTs…

Traditionally, cluster randomized controlled trials are analyzed with the average intervention effect of interest. However, in populations that contain higher degrees of heterogeneity or variation may differ across different values of a covariate, which may not be optimal. Within education and social science contexts, exploring the variation in…

Parenting programs have been shown to be effective in preventing and reducing externalising problems in young children. Despite their efficacy, the low rate of initial parental engagement in these programs is a major challenge for clinicians and researchers. Few studies have examined factors associated with rates of initial engagement in parenting…

One of the essential skills that pharmacy students should develop is the ability to evaluate randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals. This study aimed to enhance the RCT evaluation skills of fifth-year pharmacy students. It employed the CASP checklist application to assess clinical studies…

High-quality preschool programs are heralded as an effective policy tool to promote the development and life-long wellbeing of children from low-income families. Yet evaluations of recent preschool programs produce puzzling findings, including negative impacts, and divergent, weaker results than were shown in demonstration programs implemented in…