title: The process, outcomes, and challenges of feasibility studies conducted in partnership with stakeholders: a health intervention for women survivors of intimate partner violence.
abstract: Feasibility studies play a crucial role in determining whether complex, community-based interventions should be subject to efficacy testing. Reports of such studies often focus on efficacy potential but less often examine other elements of feasibility, such as acceptance by clients and professionals, practicality, and system integration, which are critical to decisions for proceeding with controlled efficacy testing. Although stakeholder partnership in feasibility studies is widely suggested to facilitate the research process, strengthen relevance, and increase knowledge transfer, little is written about how this occurs or its consequences and outcomes. We began to address these gaps in knowledge in a feasibility study of a health intervention for women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) conducted in partnership with policy, community and practitioner stakeholders. We employed a mixed-method design, combining a single-group, pre-post intervention study with 52 survivors of IPV, of whom 42 completed data collection, with chart review data and interviews of 18 purposefully sampled participants and all 9 interventionists. We assessed intervention feasibility in terms of acceptability, demand, practicality, implementation, adaptation, integration, and efficacy potential. Our findings demonstrate the scope of knowledge attainable when diverse elements of feasibility are considered, as well as the benefits and challenges of partnership. The implications of diverse perspectives on knowledge transfer are discussed. Our findings show the importance of examining elements of feasibility for complex community-based health interventions as a basis for determining whether controlled intervention efficacy testing is justified and for refining both the intervention and the research design.
authors.affiliation: Professor Emerita, University of New Brunswick Faculty of Nursing, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, NB, Canada, E3B 5A3.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wuest
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Merritt-Gray
authors.forename: Norma
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dubé
authors.forename: Marilyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hodgins
authors.forename: Jeannie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Malcolm
authors.forename: Jo Ann
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Majerovich
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Scott-Storey
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ford-Gilboe
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Varcoe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018585:Battered Women / Q000523:psychology*; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D012944:Social Support; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000628:therapy*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D016387:Women's Health
keywords: community; feasibility study; health; intervention; intimate partner violence; partnership; primary health care; women's