Methods in realist evaluation: A mapping review

Renmans, Dimitri; Pleguezuelo, Virginia Castellano

doi:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2022.102209

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…These in-depth studies should build on and complement existing descriptive or specific assessments of HI research capacities available in certain contexts. 11,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39] These realist explanatory case studies should be theory-driven, 29,31,59 and seek to identify and evaluate enabling and inhibiting mechanisms. In addition, they should consider the historical, political, and socioeconomic determinants and power dynamics that influence the volume and type of HI research generated in different settings.…”

Section: Research Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Health Inequalities Research Capacities: Insights and Recommendations From Comparing Two High Income Settings

Cash-Gibson,

Benach

2024

International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Heal

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Generating evidence on health inequalities (HI) is necessary to raise awareness of these issues, describe and monitor their evolution, analyze their causes, and inform interventions aiming to improve health equity. Yet not all cities and countries have the capacity to produce this type of research. Recent research provides new contextual and causal insights into this research production process, and in-depth understanding on why and how this type of research is produced in certain settings. This article aims to analyze two recent case studies that have uniquely explored this process in two high producers of HI research and high-income country settings to identify learning and distil recommendations, which may be insightful for other settings. Expanding and investing in this line of research is critical, particularly in places with lower HI research output and related capacity, in order to identify key contextual conditions and mechanisms that may enable or hinder this process. This new knowledge could guide the development of new HI research capacity strengthening strategies to foster this research in different settings, worldwide. More understanding is also needed on the relationship between HI research, policy, and action in order to tackle HI.

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Section: Research Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Health Inequalities Research Capacities: Insights and Recommendations From Comparing Two High Income Settings

Cash-Gibson,

Benach

2024

International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Heal

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“…explanatory statements) to hypothesise how, for example an initiative works, often referred to as contexts, mechanism reasoning, mechanism resources and outcomes (see 18). The second phase involves the testing and exploration of these theories via mixed methods data collection (20). The nal phase focuses on the re nement of the theories following analysis to better describe how and why the initiative works as it does.…”

Section: Realist Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, the research team operationalise a series of realist-informed qualitative and quantitative methods to further test the impact pathways and causal connections to explore how, why and for whom the pathways apply. In accordance with realist evaluation, a methods neutral approach is taken (20) where those methods that are most suited to testing the impact pathways and causal connections are selected. These methods may consist of surveys that provide more extensive reach to test the impacts on a wider sample.…”

Section: Further Testing and Investigation Of Impact Pathways And Cau...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Realist-informed Ripple Effects Mapping: Positioning the approach

Harris,

Nobles,

Ryan

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Background: Evaluation approaches such as ripple effects mapping (REM) and realist evaluation have emerged as popular methodologies to evidence impact, and the processes of change within public health as part of whole systems approaches. Despite the various examples of their implementation across different evaluation settings, there has been little or no evidence of how they might be effective when combined. Methods: With REM’s potential to pragmatically illustrate impact, and realist evaluation’s strength to identify how and why impacts emerge, this paper develops a rationale and process for their amalgamation. Following this, we outline a realist-informed ripple effects mapping (RREM) protocol that may be suitable for application within evaluation settings in a range of public health, whole system and physical activity settings. Discussion: Combining these two approaches has the potential to more effectively illuminate the impacts that we see within public health and whole system approaches and initiatives. What is more, given the complexity often imbued within these approaches and initiatives they hold capability for also capturing the causal mechanisms that explain these impacts. Conclusions: It is our conclusion that when combined, this novel approach may help to inspire future research as well as more effective evaluation of public health and whole system approaches. This is crucial if we are to foster a culture for learning, refinement and reflection.

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“…Accordingly, examining context in an RE reaches beyond variable-based statistical adjustments to include a more fine-grained analysis of the interaction between a mechanism and the context within which it is embedded. A recent review of published RE studies documents a high reliance on qualitative data (Renmans and Pleguezuelo, 2023).…”

Section: What Is a Realist Trial—unicorn Or Oxymoron?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The curious case of the realist trial: Methodological oxymoron or unicorn?

Nielsen,

Jaspers,

Lemire

2023

Evaluation

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Realist evaluation and experimental designs are both well-established approaches to evaluation. Over the past 10 years, realist trials—evaluations purposefully combining realist evaluation and experimental designs—have emerged. Informed by a comprehensive review of published realist trials, this article examines to what extent and how realist trials align with quality standards for realist evaluations and randomized controlled trials and to what extent and how the realist and trial aspects of realist trials are integrated. We identified only few examples that met high-quality standards for both experimental and realist studies and that merged the two designs.

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Methods in realist evaluation: A mapping review

Cited by 12 publications

References 70 publications

Understanding Health Inequalities Research Capacities: Insights and Recommendations From Comparing Two High Income Settings

Understanding Health Inequalities Research Capacities: Insights and Recommendations From Comparing Two High Income Settings

Towards Realist-informed Ripple Effects Mapping: Positioning the approach

The curious case of the realist trial: Methodological oxymoron or unicorn?

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