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Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review

Many recommendations and innovative approaches are available for the development and evaluation of complex health interventions. We investigated the dimensions of complexity described in health research and how these descriptions may affect the adopted research methodology (e.g., the choice of desig...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Trompette, Justine, Kivits, Joëlle, Minary, Laetitia, Alla, François
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246458/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32354085
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093069
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author Trompette, Justine
Kivits, Joëlle
Minary, Laetitia
Alla, François
author_facet Trompette, Justine
Kivits, Joëlle
Minary, Laetitia
Alla, François
author_sort Trompette, Justine
collection PubMed
description Many recommendations and innovative approaches are available for the development and evaluation of complex health interventions. We investigated the dimensions of complexity described in health research and how these descriptions may affect the adopted research methodology (e.g., the choice of designs and methods). We used a mixed method approach to review the scientific literature evaluating complex interventions in the health field. Of 438 articles identified, 179 were subjected to descriptive analysis and 48 to content analysis. The three principal dimensions of complexity were: stakeholder characteristics, intervention multimodality and context. Recognition of such dimensions influenced the methodological choices made during evaluation of the interventions with their use of designs and methods, which aimed to address the complexity. We analysed not only how researchers view complexity but also the effects of such views on researcher practices. Our results highlight the need for clarification of what complexity means and to consider complexity when deciding how to evaluate research interventions.
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spelling pubmed-72464582020-06-11 Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review Trompette, Justine Kivits, Joëlle Minary, Laetitia Alla, François Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Many recommendations and innovative approaches are available for the development and evaluation of complex health interventions. We investigated the dimensions of complexity described in health research and how these descriptions may affect the adopted research methodology (e.g., the choice of designs and methods). We used a mixed method approach to review the scientific literature evaluating complex interventions in the health field. Of 438 articles identified, 179 were subjected to descriptive analysis and 48 to content analysis. The three principal dimensions of complexity were: stakeholder characteristics, intervention multimodality and context. Recognition of such dimensions influenced the methodological choices made during evaluation of the interventions with their use of designs and methods, which aimed to address the complexity. We analysed not only how researchers view complexity but also the effects of such views on researcher practices. Our results highlight the need for clarification of what complexity means and to consider complexity when deciding how to evaluate research interventions. MDPI 2020-04-28 2020-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7246458/ /pubmed/32354085 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093069 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Trompette, Justine
Kivits, Joëlle
Minary, Laetitia
Alla, François
Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review
title Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review
title_full Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review
title_fullStr Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review
title_full_unstemmed Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review
title_short Dimensions of the Complexity of Health Interventions: What Are We Talking about? A Review
title_sort dimensions of the complexity of health interventions: what are we talking about? a review
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246458/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32354085
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093069
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