Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2007 May;32(5 Suppl):S112-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2007.01.022.

The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) and the sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART): new methods for more potent eHealth interventions

Linda M Collins  1 , Susan A Murphy, Victor Strecher
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

The multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) and the sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART): new methods for more potent eHealth interventions

Linda M Collins et al. Am J Prev Med. 2007 May.

Abstract

In this article two new methods for building and evaluating eHealth interventions are described. The first is the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST). It consists of a screening phase, in which intervention components are efficiently identified for inclusion in an intervention or for rejection, based on their performance; a refining phase, in which the selected components are fine tuned and issues such as optimal levels of each component are investigated; and a confirming phase, in which the optimized intervention, consisting of the selected components delivered at optimal levels, is evaluated in a standard randomized controlled trial. The second is the Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART), which is an innovative research design especially suited for building time-varying adaptive interventions. A SMART trial can be used to identify the best tailoring variables and decision rules for an adaptive intervention empirically. Both the MOST and SMART approaches use randomized experimentation to enable valid inferences. When properly implemented, these approaches will lead to the development of more potent eHealth interventions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Outline of the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)
ANOVA, analysis of variance; SMART, sequential multiple assignment randomized trial
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fox S. Health information online. 2005. http://207.21.232.103/pdfs/PIP_Healthtopics_May05.pdf [cited 2007 January 12]; Available from.
    1. Collins LM, Murphy SA, Nair VN, Strecher V. A strategy for optimizing and evaluating behavioral interventions. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2005;30:65–73. - PubMed
    1. Murphy SA. An experimental design for the development of adaptive treatment strategies. Statistics in Medicine. 2005;24:1455–1481. - PubMed
    1. Fisher RA. The design of experiments. Oliver and Boyd; London: 1935.
    1. Box GEP, Hunter WG, Hunter JS. Statistics for experimenters: An introduction to design, data analysis, and model building. Wiley; New York: 1978.

Publication types