title: Examples of implementation and evaluation of treatment fidelity in the BCC studies: where we are and where we need to go.
abstract: Treatment fidelity plays an important role in the research team's ability to ensure that a treatment has been implemented as intended and that the treatment has been accurately tested. Developing, implementing, and evaluating a treatment fidelity plan can be challenging. The treatment fidelity workgroup within the Behavior Change Consortium (BCC) developed guidelines to comprehensively evaluate treatment fidelity in behavior change research. The guidelines include evaluation of treatment fidelity with regard to study design, training of interventionists, delivery and receipt of the intervention, and enactment of the intervention in real-life settings. This article describes these guidelines and provides examples from four BCC studies as to how these recommended guidelines for fidelity were considered. Future work needs to focus not only on implementing treatment fidelity plans but also on quantifying the evaluations performed, developing specific criteria for interpretation of the findings, and establishing best practices of treatment fidelity.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. barbresnick@aol.com
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Resnick
authors.forename: Albert J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Bellg
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borrelli
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Defrancesco
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Breger
authors.forename: Jacki
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hecht
authors.forename: Daryl L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Levesque
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Orwig
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: Gbenga
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ogedegbe
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Czajkowski
mesh_terms: D035841:Behavioral Research; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D009043:Motor Activity; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D016896:Treatment Outcome