Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113131

James R. Ciesla, PhD, School of Allied Health Professions, Northern Illinois University, Public and Community Health Programs, DeKalb, IL 60115, 815-753-3409, jciesla@niu.edu

Evaluating the effectiveness and improving the performance of substance abuse treatment services for adolescents hinges on researchers' ability to collect outcomes information from adolescents and their parents. While there are a number of standardized questionnaire's widely available to outcomes researchers that measure most aspects of treatment success, getting responses from a representative sample of adolescents or their parents is very difficult. This research describes techniques outcomes researchers can use to triangulate data collected from surveys of adolescents and their parents, from bioassays such as urine drug screens, and from treatment records, to create a comprehensive picture of treatment success. This research is based on data gathered over the past seven years from a treatment facility in the Midwest region of the US. The data set contains over 540 sociodemographic, outcomes and treatment services characteristics from over 750 adolescents discharged from primary substance abuse treatment. Findings show how data can be collected by treatment providers or evaluators that can be used to improve the quality of treatment services. Techniques such as how to effectively use proxy interviews when adolescents are unable or unwilling to respond to surveys, how bioassays such as urine drug screens are best used to increase the accuracy of self-reports at minimal cost, and how to determine if missing cases have compromised the internal validity (and thus the generalizability) of the data, and when cases can be considered missing at random (MAR) will be discussed and practical guidance for treatment providers will be given.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

(
• Identify the key components of an effective outcomes research protocol for adolescent stubstance abuse treatment services. (
• Design and implement an outcomes research process that links treatment outocmes to sepcific treatment services.

Keywords: Substance Abuse Treatment, Adolescents

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.