experimental method hybrid

Hybrid Experimental Designs for Intervention Development: What, Why, and How

Affiliations.

• 1 Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• 2 Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania.
• 3 Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Center, Injury Prevention Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• 4 School of Public Health and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• PMID: 36935844
• PMCID: PMC10024531
• DOI: 10.1177/25152459221114279

Advances in mobile and wireless technologies offer tremendous opportunities for extending the reach and impact of psychological interventions and for adapting interventions to the unique and changing needs of individuals. However, insufficient engagement remains a critical barrier to the effectiveness of digital interventions. Human delivery of interventions (e.g., by clinical staff) can be more engaging but potentially more expensive and burdensome. Hence, the integration of digital and human-delivered components is critical to building effective and scalable psychological interventions. Existing experimental designs can be used to answer questions either about human-delivered components that are typically sequenced and adapted at relatively slow timescales (e.g., monthly) or about digital components that are typically sequenced and adapted at much faster timescales (e.g., daily). However, these methodologies do not accommodate sequencing and adaptation of components at multiple timescales and hence cannot be used to empirically inform the joint sequencing and adaptation of human-delivered and digital components. Here, we introduce the hybrid experimental design (HED)-a new experimental approach that can be used to answer scientific questions about building psychological interventions in which human-delivered and digital components are integrated and adapted at multiple timescales. We describe the key characteristics of HEDs (i.e., what they are), explain their scientific rationale (i.e., why they are needed), and provide guidelines for their design and corresponding data analysis (i.e., how can data arising from HEDs be used to inform effective and scalable psychological interventions).

Keywords: clinical trial; design; digital interventions; experiment; experimental designs; factorial; health; human-delivered interventions; hybrid experimental designs; intervention; intervention adaptation; open materials; randomization; therapy; treatment.

Grants and funding

• P50 DA054039/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States
• R01 AA026574/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/United States
• R01 DA039901/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States
• U01 CA229437/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States