Reports of tailored studies often lack essential information needed to integrate results across studies hence development of evidence-based interventions is limited.  The purpose of this report is to describe and categorize problems common to tailored interventions research.  This work is based on Cooper’s framework (Cooper, 1989; Cooper& Hedges, 1994) for literature integration.  Solutions to the identified problems will be posed.

Method

Primary reports of research on tailored interventions published since 1998 in health related English language publications were reviewed.  Studies met criteria for a tailored intervention and included a health behavior outcome.  The Quantitative Research Evaluation Guide (QREG) was used in this analysis.

Results

A total of 71 research reports that met the criteria were retrieved. A number of common problems that affect the potential to evaluate efficacy of tailored interventions were identified.  Methodological problems were categorized according to design, sample, measurement, procedure and analysis. Frequency of problems is reported for all studies.  Potential solutions to increase the fidelity of these studies are posited.

Relevance to Nursing

Quality studies and comprehensive reports are essential to develop evidence based interventions.  This analysis has uncovered numerous opportunities for improvement in research related to tailoring to change health behavior.  Among solutions the authors will be presenting a specific guideline to be used in reporting tailored interventions.

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