Implementation issues in drug abuse prevention research

This chapter reviews methodological issues in evaluating the quality of implementation of drug abuse prevention programs. Issues of definition (adherence, exposure, reinvention), measurement (self-report, other's report, behavioral observation), and parameters of influence (person, situation, environment) are addressed. Implementation results of recent drug prevention and health promotion studies are reviewed as they relate to these issues. A general model is then proposed that represents implementation as a multiply determined process involving the interaction of person, situation, and environmental influences. Using this model, several recommendations are offered for estimating the "true" drug abuse prevention program effect as the average of effect estimates generated from experimental program assignment and level of program implementation. Potential differences between researcher and programmer standards of quality or level of implementation are noted, using the common interpretation of the efficacy/effectiveness research trial continuum as an example.