Centre for Policy on Ageing



Evaluating complex interventions — one size does not fit all
Author(s)	Mhairi Mackenzie, Catherine O'Donnell, Emma Halliday
Journal title	British Medical Journal, no 7743, 20 February 2010
Pages	pp 401-403
Source	www.bmj.com BMJ 2010;340:c814
Keywords	Health services ; Health [elderly] ; Social policy ; Evaluation ; Literature reviews.
Annotation	Although planning of new health policy could be improved to enable more robust evaluation, the authors argue that randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are not always suitable or practical. The Medical Research Council (MRC) introduced guidance on use of RCTs in 2002, a framework that was updated in 2008. This article uses the example of Keep Well (the Scottish Government's major investment in cardiovascular anticipatory care launched in 2006) to show the problems of implementing the MRC recommendations for national policy initiatives. The authors also cite a more recent report from the House of Commons Health Committee, 'Health inequalities' (TSO, 2009). The Committee criticised missed opportunities to conduct controlled studies of recent policy interventions, and has called for policy makers to develop interventions that could be better evaluated. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-100319209 A
Classmark	L: CC: TM2: 4C: 64A *
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.