Field trials of health interventions : [electronic resource] a toolbox / Edited by Peter G Smith; R H Morrow; David A Ross.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction to field trials of health interventions -- Types of intervention and their development -- Reviewing the literature -- Trial design -- Trial size -- Ethical considerations -- Trial governance -- Preparing grant applications -- Community engagement -- Censuses and mapping -- Randomization, blinding, and coding -- Outcome measures and case definition -- Preliminary studies and pilot testing -- Questionnaires -- Social and behavioural research -- Field organization and ensuring data of high quality -- Field laboratory methods -- Budgeting and accounting -- Intervention costing and economic analysis -- Data management -- Methods of analysis -- Phase IV studies -- Reporting and using trial results.

Before new interventions can be used in disease control programmes, it is essential that they are carefully evaluated in "field trials", which may be complex and expensive undertakings. Descriptions of the detailed procedures and methods used in trials that have been conducted in the past have generally not been published. As a consequence, those planning such trials have few guidelines available and little access to previously accumulated knowledge. In this book the practical issues of trial design and conduct are discussed fully and in sufficient detail for the text to be used as a "toolbox" by field investigators. The toolbox has now been extensively tested through use of the first two editions and this third edition is a comprehensive revision, incorporating the many developments that have taken place with respect to trials since 1996 and involving more than 30 contributors. Most of the chapters have been extensively revised and 7 new chapters have been added.