ReviewHealth policy and planning2014
Examining the links between community participation and health outcomes: a review of the literature.
Review in Health policy and planning, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 167 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
167 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Measurement and evaluation of community engagement in complex, chronic medical conditions: HIV and obesity as exemplar conditions.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Pooled it
- Community Engagement in Vaccination Promotion: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Pooled it
- Community-Based Health Information Systems in Africa: A Scoping Review of Data Generation, Utilization, and Community Empowerment.Wellcome open research · 2024Pooled it
- Training health workers in clinical breast examination for early detection of breast cancer in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- How are health research partnerships assessed? A systematic review of outcomes, impacts, terminology and the use of theories, models and frameworks.Health research policy and systems · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluating health service outcomes of public involvement in health service design in high-income countries: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Improving social accountability processes in the health sector in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2018Pooled it
- Searching for the Impact of Participation in Health and Health Research: Challenges and Methods.BioMed research international · 2018Pooled it
- Factors affecting effective community participation in maternal and newborn health programme planning, implementation and quality of care interventions.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2017Pooled it
- Synergies, strengths and challenges: findings on community capability from a systematic health systems research literature review.BMC health services research · 2016Pooled it
- Exploring the role of community engagement in improving the health of disadvantaged populations: a systematic review.Global health action · 2015Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Community-Based Interventions for Hypertension Control in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of primary care & community healthPooled it
- The Dilemmas and Opportunities of Co-Creating Health Interventions to Fit Local Contexts: An Ethnographic Study on the Adaptation of Clinical Guidelines in Tanzania.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Trial
- Whose knowledge counts? Involving communities in intervention and trial design using community conversations.Trials · 2023Trial
- Multi-level change strategies for health: learning from people-centered advocacy in Uganda.International journal for equity in health · 2022Trial
- Effect of community-led delivery of HIV self-testing on HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy initiation in Malawi: A cluster-randomised trial.PLoS medicine · 2021Trial
- Operationalizing the One Health approach at the intersection of research and development: a study protocol for the ELUZO project in Senegal and Burkina Faso.Global health action · 2026Article
- A critical reflection on community engagement in health equity research: translating principles into practice, navigating barriers, and compiling transferable lessons.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
107 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As a key principle of Primary Health Care (PHC) and Health Systems Reform, community participation has a prominent place in the current global dialogue. Participation is not only promoted in the context of provision and utilization of health services. Advocates also highlight participation as a key factor in the wider context of the importance of social determinants of health and health as a human right. However, the evidence that directly links community participation to improved health status is not strong. Its absence continues to be a barrier for governments, funding agencies and health professionals to promote community participation. The purpose of this article is to review research seeking to link community participation with improved health status outcomes programmes. It updates a review undertaken by the author in 2009. The search includes published articles in the English language and examines the evidence of in the context of health care delivery including services and promotion where health professionals have defined the community's role. The results show that in most studies community participation is defined as the intervention seeking to identify a direct causal link between participation and improved health status modeled on Randomized Control studies (RCT). The majority of studies show it is not possible to examine the link because there is no standard definition of 'community' and 'participation'. Where links are found, they are situation-specific and are unpredictable and not generalizable. In the discussion, an alternative research framework is proposed arguing that community participation is better understood as a process. Once concrete interventions are identified (i.e. improved birth outcomes) then the processes producing improved health status outcomes can be examined. These processes may include and can lead to community uptake, ownership and sustainability for health improvements. However, more research is needed to ensure their validity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.