We used two strategies to secure widespread implementation: (i) involvement of local agents in programme planning and (ii) focussing on designing the intervention in a format that would appeal to a large group of adolescent smokers.
Presenters were asked to provide evaluative data about the use or proposed use of interventions in a standard format: we supplied a template using the five headers listed above.
Four trials (Edelman et al, 1999; Classen et al, 2001; Goodwin et al, 2001; Giese-Davis et al, 2002) delivered the intervention in a group format.
Participants included 111 families with 155 children aged 9 15 years, who were randomized to either written information only or to a 12-session cognitive behavioral family intervention in a group format [ 19].
Chalfant et al., McConachie et al., Schohl et al., Sofronoff et al., and Sung et al. delivered the intervention in a group format (group sizes varying between 3 and 10 participants/group) [ 30, 32, 37, 40, 43].
Implementing any intervention in a standard format across sites is not straightforward but standardising complex, multiple treatment interventions, which may have a number of interacting components, is difficult and, some researchers argue, standardising the form of an intervention rather than its function may not be appropriate [ 18].
The findings from the present study suggest that preschool-aged children with ASD receiving the ESDM intervention in a group format showed statistically and clinically significant gains on a range of clinical outcomes, particularly in the areas of receptive language and communication.
To our knowledge all published papers on empirically evaluated interventions with siblings used interventions in a group or camp format, and individual interventions were hardly ever evaluated in the literature.
Studies have been conducted using interventions in a group or individual format (or a combination of the two), but no study has yet compared these delivery methods against one another [ 6].
Since members of the research team provided the additional consultations (interventions), implementation of a format in daily practice will need to receive further attention.
