The added value and unintended negative consequences of public involvement processes in the planning, development and implementation of community health services: Results from a thematic synthesis

PURPOSE: Public involvement is widely considered a means to improve health and quality of health services. The research literature reveals ambiguities concerning added value and unintended negative consequences of public involvement processes. The aim of this study is to identify, synthesise and present an overview of added value and unintended negative consequences of public involvement processes in the planning, development and implementation of community health services. METHODS: Data from 36 peer‐reviewed articles retrieved from a systematic search in the CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, ProQuest, and Scopus databases in October 2019 and updated in April 2021 were extracted. A three‐step thematic synthesis was conducted involving (1) line‐by‐line text coding, (2) developing descriptive themes and (3) generating analytical themes. RESULTS: Two main themes along with their corresponding themes provided an overview of the added value of public involvement processes at the individual, service and political levels. Unintended negative consequences concerning individual resources, uncertainty about the effect of involvement and power differences were revealed. CONCLUSION: Added value of public involvement processes is primarily reported on an individual and service level. The added value seems to be accompanied by unintended negative consequences. Training of professional facilitators and recruitment of participants that come from vulnerable groups could help promote equality in public involvement. Unintended negative consequences need to be further explored in future evaluations in order to achieve the desired goals of public involvement.