Dreibelbis R, Winch PJ, Leontsini E, Hulland KR, Ram PK, Unicomb L, Luby SP The Integrated Behavioural Model for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: a systematic review of behavioural models and a framework for designing and evaluating behaviour change interventions in infrastructure-restricted settings. BMC Public Health. 2013 Oct 26;13:1015. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-1015. Review.
Ercumen A, Naser AM, Unicomb L, Arnold BF, Colford JM Jr, Luby SP Effects of source- versus household contamination of tubewell water on child diarrhea in rural Bangladesh: a randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2015 Mar 27;10(3):e0121907. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121907. eCollection 2015.
Vujcic J, Ram PK, Hussain F, Unicomb L, Gope PS, Abedin J, Mahmud ZH, Islam MS, Luby SP Toys and toilets: cross-sectional study using children's toys to evaluate environmental faecal contamination in rural Bangladeshi households with different sanitation facilities and practices. Trop Med Int Health. 2014 May;19(5):528-36. doi: 10.1111/tmi.12292. Epub 2014 Mar 19.
Spillover Effects of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Interventions on Child Health
Interventional studies are often prospective and are specifically tailored to evaluate direct impacts of treatment or preventive measures on disease.
Observational studies are often retrospective and are used to assess potential causation in exposure-outcome relationships and therefore influence preventive methods.
Expanded access is a means by which manufacturers make investigational new drugs available, under certain circumstances, to treat a patient(s) with a serious disease or condition who cannot participate in a controlled clinical trial.
Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps, called phases - each phase is designed to answer a separate research question.
Phase 1: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
Phase 2: The drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
Phase 3: The drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Phase 4: Studies are done after the drug or treatment has been marketed to gather information on the drug's effect in various populations and any side effects associated with long-term use.