A review of implementation and evaluation frameworks for public health to inform co-creation

BACKGROUND: Co-creation is a promising approach attempting to bridge the knowledge translation gap between research and practice to tackle complex and wicked public health problems. While implementation and evaluation frameworks for public health interventions are numerous and include relevant elements, recommendations are lacking on how to apply them specifically to the context of co-creation. This systematic review identifies and analyses existing implementation and evaluation frameworks for public health interventions and formulates key recommendations for professional stakeholders and researchers wanting to adopt a co-creation approach to intervention. METHODS: PubMed and CINAHL databases were screened for articles introducing original implementation and evaluation frameworks for public health interventions. Backward snowballing techniques were applied to the included papers. Identified frameworks were classified and the content of the recognized frameworks extracted and analysed through deductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Thirty frameworks were identified, classified according to most recent literature and prominent concepts and steps extracted. Recommendations around the use of identified frameworks for the context of co-creation were included. CONCLUSIONS: When engaging in co-creation, we recommend including implementation considerations from an early stage and suggest adopting a systems thinking as a way to explore multiple levels of influence, contextual settings and systems from an early planning stage. We suggest applying an evaluation design that is formative and iterative, which, along with effectiveness, pays particular attention to the process evaluation and experience of the engaged co-creators. KEY MESSAGES: • When adopting co-creation for public health, we recommend repositioning implementation and evaluation considerations. • When adopting co-creation for public health, we suggest applying a formative and iterative evaluation, which, along with effectiveness, pays attention to process and experience.