ArticleBMJ global health2019
Implications of a complexity perspective for systematic reviews and guideline development in health decision making.
Article in BMJ global health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
91 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Understanding the mechanisms of climate change impact on tuberculosis: a complex systems approach.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Finding the Right Balance: Challenges in Optimising the Promise of Complexity Research for NCD Best-Buys Implementation and Adoption Comment on "Barriers and Opportunities for WHO 'Best Buys' Non-communicable Disease Policy Adoption and Implementation From a Political Economy Perspective: A Complexity Systematic Review".International journal of health policy and management · 2025Pooled it
- Barriers and Opportunities for WHO "Best Buys" Non-communicable Disease Policy Adoption and Implementation From a Political Economy Perspective: A Complexity Systematic Review.International journal of health policy and management · 2024Pooled it
- An umbrella review of the acceptability of fiscal and pricing policies to reduce diet-related noncommunicable disease.Nutrition reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Interventions targeting the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people in higher-income countries: Evidence map and systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Using COVID-19 Pandemic as a Prism: A Systematic Review of Methodological Approaches and the Quality of Empirical Studies on Physical Activity Behavior Change.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2022Pooled it
- Qualitative process evaluation from a complex systems perspective: A systematic review and framework for public health evaluators.PLoS medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Adapting evidence-informed complex population health interventions for new contexts: a systematic review of guidance.Implementation science : IS · 2019Pooled it
- Training Healthcare Professionals to Deliver a Group-Based Intervention for People Living With Severe Obesity: Lessons From the PROGROUP Feasibility Trial.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2026Trial
- Implementation of lifestyle recommendations in the Dutch medical specialists' guidelines: a mixed-methods cross-sectional survey study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Reviewing ecosystems of evidence: synthesising the evidence on the commercial determinants of health from a complex systems perspective.Systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Applying a complex systems-informed approach to population health interventions: a methodological case-study example of traffic restriction schemes outside schools.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Healthcare workers' perspectives on burnout complaints: exploring underlying dynamics using a complex systems approach.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Using a Human Factors Framework to Examine Complexity as a Mediator Between IPC Work System and Healthcare Workers' Behaviors: A Structural Equation Model.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- Framework for evidence synthesis of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine systems incorporating context and complexity, illustrated by the example of homeopathy.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Organising housing and service provision for persons with co-occurring substance use and mental health problems: a scoping review in the ROP Municipal.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Towards a typology of mental health crisis care services for children and young people in England and Wales: a cross-sectional survey and analysis of implementation practices.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- A behavioural science framework for tackling upstream challenges in health systems.BMJ global health · 2025Review
- Article
- Methods for the health technology assessment of complex interventions: A scoping review.PloS one · 2025Article
31 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
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is growing interest in the potential for complex systems perspectives in evaluation. This reflects a move away from interest in linear chains of cause-and-effect, towards considering health as an outcome of interlinked elements within a connected whole. Although systems-based approaches have a long history, their concrete implications for health decisions are still being assessed. Similarly, the implications of systems perspectives for the conduct of systematic reviews require further consideration. Such reviews underpin decisions about the implementation of effective interventions, and are a crucial part of the development of guidelines. Although they are tried and tested as a means of synthesising evidence on the effectiveness of interventions, their applicability to the synthesis of evidence about complex interventions and complex systems requires further investigation. This paper, one of a series of papers commissioned by the WHO, sets out the concrete methodological implications of a complexity perspective for the conduct of systematic reviews. It focuses on how review questions can be framed within a complexity perspective, and on the implications for the evidence that is reviewed. It proposes criteria which can be used to determine whether or not a complexity perspective will add value to a review or an evidence-based guideline, and describes how to operationalise key aspects of complexity as concrete research questions. Finally, it shows how these questions map onto specific types of evidence, with a focus on the role of qualitative and quantitative evidence, and other types of information.
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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.