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- Title
Evaluating complex public health interventions: theory, methods and scope of realist enquiry.
- Authors
Connelly, James B.
- Abstract
The standard models used in the study of complex public health interventions are inadequate. They adopt a simple empiricist theoretical foundation and attempt to graft onto an essentially open social system a contrived laboratory experimentation typically in the form of a randomized, controlled trial. By understanding the ontological and epistemological claims of critical realism, it is possible to transcend the methodological inadequacy of the standard model approach. Critical realism posits a substantive causal theory, an end to fact-value dualism, and a coherent and emancipatory model of social action; all of these features amount to a systematic and compelling account of public health practice and a coherent approach to evaluation of complex public health interventions.
- Subjects
PUBLIC health; STANDARD model (Nuclear physics); SOCIAL systems; SCIENTIFIC experimentation; SOCIAL action
- Publication
Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 2007, Vol 13, Issue 6, p935
- ISSN
1356-1294
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2753.2006.00790.x