Results of the 1:1-matching of the CTC-EFF study: A non-randomized evaluation study

Background

In Germany, more and more communities are implementing the U.S. approach “Communities That Care (CTC)” to prevent youth problem behavior. To evaluate the effectiveness of CTC, we planned a prospective natural experiment. This required the development of a specific novel recruiting and matching procedure. In this talk, we examine the ability of our procedure to achieve base-line equivalence regarding the matching characteristics.

Methods

The matching procedure is based on community-level data from official statistics 2017 (www.inkar.de) and police crime statistics 2019. From April 2019 to January 2020, we recruited communities that are implementing CTC (intervention communities, IC). For each IC, we recruited a matched community in the same federal state not using CTC (comparison community, CC). To examine whether the ICs (n = 15) and the CCs (n = 15) are equivalent, chi-square tests were performed for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney U tests for metric variables.

Results

The following are preliminary results. Of the ICs/CCs 10%/7% are large cities, 25%/29% medium-sized cities, 40%/43% larger towns, 15%/14% smaller towns, and 10%/7% rural communities (p=.995). Regarding the community development of ICs/CCs 10%/21% are shrinking, 5%/14% stable, 55%/36% growing and 30%/29% strongly growing (p=.533). The mean fiscal power (€per capita and year) of the ICs/CCs is 1,150€/770€(p=.192). The mean long-term unemployment rate is 1.19% in ICs and 1.03% in CCs (p=.726). The average annual prevalence of violent crime per 100,000 inhabitants is 1.67 in ICs and 1.78 in CCs (p=.690). Prevalence of shoplifting per 100,000 inhabitants is 3.4 in ICs and 3.5 in CCs (p=.389).

Conclusions

The results show that ICs and CCs are equivalent with respect to matching characteristics.

Key messages

The developed novel recruiting and matching procedure is appropriate for enrolling communities in non-randomized trials. The CTC-EFF study evaluates the effectiveness of CTC in Germany for the first time.

[Postal Survey Among Women With Turkish Migration Background in Germany - Identification, Sample Revision and Response in the InEMa Study]

AIM OF THE STUDY

Migrants are an important target group for mailed surveys but also difficult to reach. For planning these surveys and invitational health measures, we assessed response figures for women with and without Turkish migration background.

METHODS

Women aged 50 years living in Westphalia-Lippe were invited to a postal survey at 2 time points about mammography screening. Turkish migrant women were identified in the contact database by a name-based algorithm. Possible differences in sample revision and response among women with and without Turkish migration background were assessed.

RESULTS

Women with Turkish migration background had unknown addresses significantly more often (4.6 vs. 1.7%) and responded to the questionnaires less often (first questionnaire: 14.3 vs. 35.9%; second questionnaire: 70.7 vs. 85.6%).

CONCLUSIONS

For postal invitation to participate in healthcare measures, or recruitment of Turkish migrants for studies, differences in current address and readiness to respond must be taken into consideration.