| Type of implementation research objective, implementation question, and research methods
| Objective | Description | Implementation question | Research methods and data collection approaches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explore | Explore an idea or phenomenon to make hypotheses or generalisations from specific examples | What are the possible factors and agents responsible for good implementation of a health intervention? For enhancing or expanding a health intervention? | Qualitative methods: grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, case studies and narrative approaches; key informant interviews, focus groups, historical reviews |
| Quantitative: network analysis, cross sectional surveys | |||
| Mixed methods: combining qualitative and quantitative methods | |||
| Describe | Identify and describe the phenomenon and its correlates or possible causes | What describes the context in which implementation occurs? What describes the main factors influencing implementation in a given context? | Quantitative: cross sectional (descriptive) surveys, network analysis |
| Qualitative methods: ethnography, phenomenology, case studies and narrative approaches; key informant interviews, focus groups, historical reviews | |||
| Mixed methods: both qualitative and quantitative inquiry with convergence of data and analyses | |||
| Influence | Test whether an intervention produces an expected outcome | ||
| With adequacy | With sufficient confidence that the intervention and outcomes are occurring | Is coverage of a health intervention changing among beneficiaries of the intervention? | Before-after or time series in intervention recipients only; participatory action research |
| With plausibility | With greater confidence that the outcome is due to the intervention | Is a health outcome plausibly due to the implemented intervention rather than other causes? | Concurrent, non-randomised cluster trials: health intervention implemented in some areas and not in others; before-after or cross sectional study in programme recipients and non-recipients; typical quality improvement studies |
| With probability | With a high (calculated) probability that the outcome is due to the intervention | Is a health outcome due to implementation of the intervention? | Partially controlled trials: pragmatic and cluster randomised trials; health intervention implemented in some areas and not in others; effectiveness-implementation hybrids |
| Explain | Develop or expand a theory to explain the relation between concepts, the reasons for the occurrence of events, and how they occurred | How and why does implementation of the intervention lead to effects on health behaviour, services, or status in all its variations? | Mixed methods: both qualitative and quantitative inquiry with convergence of data and analyses |
| Quantitative: repeated measures of context, actors, depth and breadth of implementation across subunits; network identification; can use designs for confirmatory inferences; effectiveness-implementation hybrids | |||
| Qualitative methods: case studies, phenomenological and ethnographic approaches with key informant interviews, focus groups, historical reviews | |||
| Participatory action research | |||
| Predict | Use prior knowledge or theories to forecast future events | What is the likely course of future implementation? | Quantitative: agent based modelling; simulation and forecasting modelling; data extrapolation and sensitivity analysis (trend analysis, econometric modelling) |
| Qualitative: scenario building exercises; Delphi techniques from opinion leaders |
Adapted from references 8, 14, and 33.