{"title":"The Family of Single-Case Experimental Designs.","authors":"Leonard H Epstein, Jesse Dallery","doi":"10.1162/99608f92.ff9300a8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) represent a family of research designs that use experimental methods to study the effects of treatments on outcomes. The fundamental unit of analysis is the single case-which can be an individual, clinic, or community-ideally with replications of effects within and/or between cases. These designs are flexible and cost-effective and can be used for treatment development, translational research, personalized interventions, and the study of rare diseases and disorders. This article provides a broad overview of the family of single-case experimental designs with corresponding examples, including reversal designs, multiple baseline designs, combined multiple baseline/reversal designs, and integration of single-case designs to identify optimal treatments for individuals into larger randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Personalized N-of-1 trials can be considered a subcategory of SCEDs that overlaps with reversal designs. Relevant issues for each type of design-including comparisons of treatments, design issues such as randomization and blinding, standards for designs, and statistical approaches to complement visual inspection of single-case experimental designs-are also discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":73195,"journal":{"name":"Harvard data science review","volume":"4 SI3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10016625/pdf/nihms-1842588.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Harvard data science review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.ff9300a8","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/9/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) represent a family of research designs that use experimental methods to study the effects of treatments on outcomes. The fundamental unit of analysis is the single case-which can be an individual, clinic, or community-ideally with replications of effects within and/or between cases. These designs are flexible and cost-effective and can be used for treatment development, translational research, personalized interventions, and the study of rare diseases and disorders. This article provides a broad overview of the family of single-case experimental designs with corresponding examples, including reversal designs, multiple baseline designs, combined multiple baseline/reversal designs, and integration of single-case designs to identify optimal treatments for individuals into larger randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Personalized N-of-1 trials can be considered a subcategory of SCEDs that overlaps with reversal designs. Relevant issues for each type of design-including comparisons of treatments, design issues such as randomization and blinding, standards for designs, and statistical approaches to complement visual inspection of single-case experimental designs-are also discussed.