TY - JOUR T1 - Reporting and design elements of audit and feedback interventions: a secondary review JF - BMJ Quality & Safety JO - BMJ Qual Saf DO - 10.1136/bmjqs-2015-005004 SP - bmjqs-2015-005004 AU - Heather Colquhoun AU - Susan Michie AU - Anne Sales AU - Noah Ivers AU - J M Grimshaw AU - Kelly Carroll AU - Mathieu Chalifoux AU - Kevin Eva AU - Jamie Brehaut Y1 - 2016/01/25 UR - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/early/2016/01/25/bmjqs-2015-005004.abstract N2 - Background Audit and feedback (A&F) is a frequently used intervention aiming to support implementation of research evidence into clinical practice with positive, yet variable, effects. Our understanding of effective A&F has been limited by poor reporting and intervention heterogeneity. Our objective was to describe the extent of these issues.Methods Using a secondary review of A&F interventions and a consensus-based process to identify modifiable A&F elements, we examined intervention descriptions in 140 trials of A&F to quantify reporting limitations and describe the interventions.Results We identified 17 modifiable A&F intervention elements; 14 were examined to quantify reporting limitations and all 17 were used to describe the interventions. Clear reporting of the elements ranged from 56% to 97% with a median of 89%. There was considerable variation in A&F interventions with 51% for individual providers only, 92% targeting behaviour change and 79% targeting processes of care, 64% performed by the provider group and 81% reporting aggregate patient data.Conclusions Our process identified 17 A&F design elements, demonstrated gaps in reporting and helped understand the degree of variation in A&F interventions. ER -