A Systematic Review of Quasi-Experimental Study Designs in the Fields of Infection Control and Antibiotic Resistance

We performed a systematic review of articles published during a 2-year period in 4 journals in the field of infectious diseases to determine the extent to which the quasi-experimental study design is used to evaluate infection control and antibiotic resistance. We evaluated studies on the basis of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical infectious diseases 2005-07, Vol.41 (1), p.77-82
Main Authors: Eliopoulos, George M., Harris, Anthony D., Lautenbach, Ebbing, Perencevich, Eli
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antibacterial agents
Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotics
Antibiotics. Antiinfectious agents. Antiparasitic agents
Antimicrobial Resistance
Biological and medical sciences
Control groups
Design evaluation
Design of experiments
Disease control
Drug resistance
Drug Resistance, Microbial
Epidemiology
Experimentation
Humans
Infection control
Infection Control - methods
Infections
Infectious diseases
Medical sciences
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Research Design - standards
Terminology
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Summary:We performed a systematic review of articles published during a 2-year period in 4 journals in the field of infectious diseases to determine the extent to which the quasi-experimental study design is used to evaluate infection control and antibiotic resistance. We evaluated studies on the basis of the following criteria: type of quasi-experimental study design used, justification of the use of the design, use of correct nomenclature to describe the design, and recognition of potential limitations of the design. A total of 73 articles featured a quasi-experimental study design. Twelve (16%) were associated with a quasi-experimental design involving a control group. Three (4%) provided justification for the use of the quasi-experimental study design. Sixteen (22%) used correct nomenclature to describe the study. Seventeen (23%) mentioned at least 1 of the potential limitations of the use of a quasi-experimental study design. The quasi-experimental study is used frequently in studies of infection control and antibiotic resistance. Efforts to improve the conduct and presentation of quasi-experimental studies are urgently needed to more rigorously evaluate interventions.
ISSN:1058-4838
1537-6591
DOI:10.1086/430713