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  • Margaret Cargo
    University of South Australia
  • Janet Harris
    University of Sheffield
  • Tomas Pantoja
    Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
  • Andrew Booth
    University of Sheffield
  • Angela Harden
    University of East London
  • Karin Hannes
    Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • James Thomas
    University College London
  • Kate Flemming
    University of York
  • Ruth Garside
    University of Exeter Medical School
  • Jane Noyes

OBJECTIVES: This article provides reviewers with guidance on methods for identifying and processing evidence to understand intervention implementation.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Strategies, tools, and methods are applied to the systematic review process to illustrate how process and implementation can be addressed using quantitative, qualitative, and other sources of evidence (i.e., descriptive textual and nonempirical).

RESULTS: Reviewers can take steps to navigate the heterogeneity and level of uncertainty present in the concepts, measures, and methods used to assess implementation. Activities can be undertaken in advance of a Cochrane quantitative review to develop program theory and logic models that situate implementation in the causal chain. Four search strategies are offered to retrieve process and implementation evidence. Recommendations are made for addressing rigor or risk of bias in process evaluation or implementation evidence. Strategies are recommended for locating and extracting data from primary studies. The basic logic is presented to assist reviewers to make initial review-level judgments about implementation failure and theory failure.

CONCLUSION: Although strategies, tools, and methods can assist reviewers to address process and implementation using quantitative, qualitative, and other forms of evidence, few exemplar reviews exist. There is a need for further methodological development and trialing of proposed approaches.

Keywords

  • Journal Article
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)59-69
JournalJournal of Clinical Epidemiology
Volume97
Issue numberMay
Early online date7 Dec 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2018

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