Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT01978054

Disseminating Public Health Evidence to Support State Health Department Prevention of Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases

The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate dissemination strategies to promote the uptake of evidence-based cancer and other chronic disease prevention among state-level public health practitioners. Dissemination strategies such as multi-day in-person training workshops and electronic information exchange modalities are hypothesized to associate with improved access and use of public health evidence and organizational supports for program and policy decision making based on evidence-based public health.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Conditions

Information Dissemination Evidence-Based Public Health

Age range

21 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Prevention Research Center in St. Louis, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis

St Louis, Missouri, 63130, United States

About this study

Evidence-based public health approaches to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases have been identified in recent decades and have the potential for high impact. Yet barriers to implement prevention approaches persist as a result of multiple factors including lack of organizational support, limited resources, competing priorities, and limited skill among the public health workforce. The purpose of this study was to learn how best to promote the adoption of evidence based public health practice related to chronic disease prevention. This cluster randomized trial aimed to evaluate the dissemination of public health knowledge about evidence-based prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases and test receptivity and usefulness of dissemination strategies directed toward state health department chronic disease practitioners to enhance capacity and organizational support for evidence-based chronic disease prevention. Twelve state health department chronic disease units were randomly selected and assigned to intervention or control. State health department staff and the university-based study team jointly identified, refined, and selected dissemination strategies. Intervention strategies included multi-day in-person training workshops, remote telephone follow-up and technical assistance, supplemental brief remote trainings, and health department work unit procedural changes to support and strengthen evidence-based decision making. Evaluation methods included pre-post surveys and structured qualitative phone interviews.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • State Health Department chronic disease units (cluster) in the United States and corresponding public health workforce (individuals within cluster)

Exclusion criteria

  • State health department has received extensive technical assistance and training comparable to our intervention (dissemination activities)
  • Origin state has no logical matching pair matched state based on state population size
  • Origin state has the lowest excess burden of cancer and other chronic risk and disease
  • Origin state health department has lowest or highest capacity for EBDM as determined from previous research

Treatment and study plan

Dissemination of public health knowledge

Other

State health department chronic disease units will be involved with developing and choosing dissemination activities to spread public health knowledge and information on population-based public health strategies that have been shown to reduce risk factors for cancer and other chronic diseases. Example of activities include: multi-day in-person training workshops and electronic information exchange modalities.

Primary outcomes

  1. Organizational supports for evidence-based decision making (EBDM)

    Time frame: 18-24 months post baseline

    Self-report Likert scale items in 4 factors: access to evidence and skilled staff, program evaluation, supervisory expectations and incentives for EBDM, and participatory decision-making

Secondary outcomes

  1. EBDM competencies

    Time frame: 18-24 months post baseline

    Self-report Likert scale items measure perceived importance and availability of specific public health practitioner skill sets for EBDM

  2. Use of research evidence for job tasks

    Time frame: 18-24 months post baseline

    Self-report frequency items for 6 job tasks, summary variable creating by calculating the mean frequency across the tasks

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Washington University School of Medicine

Other

Collaborators

  • National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Registry information

Official study title

Disseminating Evidence-Based Interventions to Control Cancer

Important dates

Study start
2013
Primary completion
2016
Study completion
2018
First posted
Nov 7, 2013
Registry last updated
Jul 6, 2018

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.