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The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research

On a global scale, many major rural health issues have persisted for decades despite the introduction of new health interventions and public health policies. Although research efforts have generated valuable new knowledge about the aetiology of health, disease and health inequities in rural communit...

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Autores principales: Hulme, Adam, Thompson, Jason, Brown, Andrew, Argus, Geoff
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9535183/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36192093
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064646
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author Hulme, Adam
Thompson, Jason
Brown, Andrew
Argus, Geoff
author_facet Hulme, Adam
Thompson, Jason
Brown, Andrew
Argus, Geoff
author_sort Hulme, Adam
collection PubMed
description On a global scale, many major rural health issues have persisted for decades despite the introduction of new health interventions and public health policies. Although research efforts have generated valuable new knowledge about the aetiology of health, disease and health inequities in rural communities, rural health systems remain to be some of the most deprived and challenged in both the developing and developed world. While the reasons for this are many, a significant factor contributing to the current state of play is the pressing need for methodological innovation and relevant scientific approaches that have the capacity to support the translation of novel solutions into ‘real world’ rural contexts. Fortunately, complex systems approaches, which have seen an increase in popularity in the wider public health literature, could provide answers to some of the most resilient rural health problems in recent times. The purpose of this article is to promote the value and utility of a complex systems approach in rural health research. We explain the benefits of a complex systems approach and provide a background to the complexity sciences, including the main characteristics of complex systems. Two popular computational methods are described. The next step for rural health research involves exploring how a complex systems approach can help with the identification and evaluation of new and existing solutions to policy-resistant rural health issues. This includes generating awareness around the analytical trade-offs that occur between the use of traditional scientific methods and complex systems approaches.
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spelling pubmed-95351832022-10-07 The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research Hulme, Adam Thompson, Jason Brown, Andrew Argus, Geoff BMJ Open Research Methods On a global scale, many major rural health issues have persisted for decades despite the introduction of new health interventions and public health policies. Although research efforts have generated valuable new knowledge about the aetiology of health, disease and health inequities in rural communities, rural health systems remain to be some of the most deprived and challenged in both the developing and developed world. While the reasons for this are many, a significant factor contributing to the current state of play is the pressing need for methodological innovation and relevant scientific approaches that have the capacity to support the translation of novel solutions into ‘real world’ rural contexts. Fortunately, complex systems approaches, which have seen an increase in popularity in the wider public health literature, could provide answers to some of the most resilient rural health problems in recent times. The purpose of this article is to promote the value and utility of a complex systems approach in rural health research. We explain the benefits of a complex systems approach and provide a background to the complexity sciences, including the main characteristics of complex systems. Two popular computational methods are described. The next step for rural health research involves exploring how a complex systems approach can help with the identification and evaluation of new and existing solutions to policy-resistant rural health issues. This includes generating awareness around the analytical trade-offs that occur between the use of traditional scientific methods and complex systems approaches. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-10-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9535183/ /pubmed/36192093 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064646 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research Methods
Hulme, Adam
Thompson, Jason
Brown, Andrew
Argus, Geoff
The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research
title The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research
title_full The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research
title_fullStr The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research
title_full_unstemmed The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research
title_short The need for a complex systems approach in rural health research
title_sort need for a complex systems approach in rural health research
topic Research Methods
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9535183/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36192093
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064646
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