>> [Music] Gathering best
available research evidence will
help to answer the
following questions:
How much scientific
research has been done
on a program, practice,
or policy?
What effects have the program,
practice, or policy had
on preventing violence?
How well does the design
of the various studies support
the validity of the findings?
What implementation guidance
is available and what does
that guidance tell us
about resources, processes,
and capacity needed
to successfully implement the
program, practice, or policy?
>> I think the value in using
the best available research
evidence is an increased
likelihood that they're going
to be implementing programs
in their communities
that have the effects
they want them to have
and not have no effects with a
lot of waste of money and time
and taking up resources
that could go
to something that's effective
and taking the chance
of delivering harmful
interventions.
>> [Music] Two important facets
of best available
research evidence.
Strength of the evidence--
the extent to which outcomes
can truly be attributed
to the program, practice,
or policy.
Effectiveness of the
program, practice, or policy--
The existence of
desirable outcomes
and no undesirable outcomes.
Finding best available
research evidence.
Many areas of public health
including violence prevention
are still developing the
research evidence base
which limits practitioners
options
for implementing evidence-based
preventive interventions.
The designation of best
available research evidence
acknowledges the fact
that in many areas
of violence prevention the
research evidence is still
being developed.
Best available research
evidence is strongest
when it includes studies
that are rigorously designed,
strategies that have been
replicated and evaluated
across multiple settings and
populations, and strategies
with comprehensive
guidance for implementation.
Not all violence prevention
strategies meet the highest
standards of rigor.
For example, in some situations,
randomly assigning participants
to a treatment or control
group may not be feasible
or acceptable.
In these cases,
quasi experimental designs may
be a more feasible options.
Observational studies
and qualitative data may also
provide useful information
although these methods
are less rigorous.
The goal remains to
seek out evidence
with the highest level
of rigor possible.
>> Then we've got to look at, go
to the next step and to realize
that there's a range
of types of evidence.
And so some of them are going
to be these gold standard
randomized clinical trial
that have been done in
multiple places, but a lot of,
there's still also evidence
that's available out there
from research that's going to
be different types of evidence,
and we need to look
at drawing those.
So published studies
is one place we go
and there's a whole host of,
and there's sort of a range
of different types of evidence
and they tell you
different things
and you can generalize more
from some and less from others.
>> In order to find the best
available research evidence,
a literature search might
include database searches
on relevant keywords and web
searches on relevant government,
university, and non-profit
registries and sites.
Many of these are publicly
available on the internet.
Finally, research evidence
in the peer reviewed literature
may not provide all the
information that may be
required to appraise evidence
of effectiveness completely.
It may also be useful to contact
the developers of the program
if possible or others who
have implemented the strategy
to collect information
on the settings
where the program has
been implemented before,
find out how the program has
been implemented and evaluated,
and determine the availability
of implementation
guidance, and support.