Angela Clark
University of Cincinnati,USA
Title: A Systematic Approach for Enhancing Fidelity in Opioid Overdose Prevention Interventions
Biography
Biography: Angela Clark
Abstract
The evaluation of treatment fidelity is an important methodological consideration in intervention research. Treatment fidelity is the degree to which interventions are delivered as outlined by the program developers. A lack of fidelity to the intervention model has the potential to be a large source of error, including type I and type II error. Monitoring and assuring fidelity is critical to assuring the validity of the interventions. The Fidelity Checklist, as created by Dr. Breitenstein is used to assess group leaders’ maintenance of the intervention protocol (adherence) and their group facilitation and process skills (competence). The purpose of this presentation is to describe a systematic process of modifying the Fidelity Checklist for use in opioid overdose prevention interventions.
Methods
A biphasic approach was used to modify The Fidelity Checklist for three different overdose prevention programs. Phase 1 includes engaging key stakeholders to determine adherence subscale components. Phase 2 included: (1) the modification of the competence subscale of the Fidelity Checklist, (2) adaptation of the coding manual defining the components of The Fidelity Checklist, and (3) creating a fidelity checklist to guide interventionists.
Results
The biphasic systematic modification approach resulted in a revised Fidelity Checklist that increases the validity of interventions and strenghtens ths impact of opioid overdose prevention efforts.
Conclusions
Fidelity measurement is an important methodological step that promotes sound research interventions. This presentation will assist researchers to better understand fidelity and a step by step process for adapting a reliable and valid tool to measure fidelity.