A critical reflection on the use of improvement science approaches in public health.

Objective: 'Improvement science' is used to describe specific quality improvement methods (including tests of change and statistical process control). The approach is spreading from clinical settings to population-wide interventions and is being extended from supporting the adoption of proven interv...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Scandinavian Journal of Public Health Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 389 - 395
Autores principales: Fischbacher, Colin M., Lewsey, Jim, Muirie, Jill, McCartney, Gerry
Formato: review tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Sage Publications Inc. May2022
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=156614026&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ccm
    uiTerm: 156614026
    longDbName: CINAHL Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    dissinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        14034948
        BDD
      jtl: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
      issn: 14034948
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: May2022
      vid: 50
      iid: 3
      pid: 344
      pub: Sage Publications Inc.
      place: Thousand Oaks, California
    artinfo:
      ui:
        156614026
        148817111
        156614026
        156614026
        10.1177/1403494821990245
        156614026
      ppf: 389
      ppct: 6
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: A critical reflection on the use of improvement science approaches in public health.
      aug:
        au:
          Fischbacher, Colin M.
          Lewsey, Jim
          Muirie, Jill
          McCartney, Gerry
        affil: Public Health Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
      sug:
        subj:
          Reflection
          Public Health
          Implementation Science Utilization
          Quality Improvement Methods
          Scotland
          Psychological Well-Being
          Health Policy
          Medical Practice
          Motivation
          Empowerment
          Implementation Science Ethical Issues
          Program Evaluation
      ab: Objective: 'Improvement science' is used to describe specific quality improvement methods (including tests of change and statistical process control). The approach is spreading from clinical settings to population-wide interventions and is being extended from supporting the adoption of proven interventions to making generalisable claims about new interventions. The objective of this narrative review is to evaluate the strengths and risks of current improvement science practice, particularly in relation to how they might be used in population health. Methods: A purposive sampling of published studies to identify how improvement science methods are being used and for what purpose. The setting was Scotland and studies that focused on health and wellbeing outcomes. Results: We have identified a range of improvement science approaches which provide practitioners with accessible tools to assess small-scale changes in policy and practice. The strengths of such approaches are that they facilitate consistent implementation of interventions already known to be effective and motivate and empower staff to make local improvements. However, we also identified a number of potential risks. In particular, their use to assess the effectiveness of new interventions often seems to pay insufficient attention to random variation, measurement bias, confounding and ethical issues. Conclusions: The use of current improvement science methods to generate evidence of effectiveness for population-wide interventions is problematic and risks unjustified claims of effectiveness, inefficient resource use and harm to those not offered alternative effective interventions. Newer methodological approaches offer alternatives and should be more widely considered.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        review
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
    refInfo:
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N