Background

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), under the aegis of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, supports the conduct of systematic reviews on a wide array of clinical topics. With a rapidly changing healthcare environment, the Agency’s efforts to conduct systematic reviews of complex interventions are of greater importance for clinical practice and policy. There is growing recognition that the effectiveness of multicomponent interventions is often influenced by complex interplays of individual characteristics, social determinants, elements of the health care delivery system, and the interventions themselves. A paper on systematic reviews of complex interventions¹ noted inconsistent reporting that may impact their usefulness and relevance, and hinder implementation of findings by end-users.

Methods

To move the field forward, on June 18-19, 2015 AHRQ supported a meeting of experts in complex interventions to identify and develop practical tools and guidance for scoping reviews, creating appropriate analytic frameworks, and analyzing data. Workgroups convened at the meeting then developed papers focused on the key meeting themes. A steering committee provided oversight and coordination of this effort to ensure consistency and cohesiveness across the developing papers.

Results/outputs

Eight papers will focus on practical tools and guidance for systematic reviews of complex interventions. They will be focused on formulating systematic review questions; adapting frameworks; optimizing analytic methods; selecting analytic methods; and reporting guidance.

References

¹Guise JM, Chang C, Viswanathan M, Glick S, Treadwell J, Umscheid C, Whitlock E, Fu R, Berliner E, Paynter R, Anderson J, Motu’apuaka M, Trikalinos T. Systematic Reviews of Complex Multicomponent Health Care Interventions. Research White Paper. AHRQ Publication No. 14-EHC003-EF. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. March 2014.