ArticlePloS one2022
Qualitative systems mapping for complex public health problems: A practical guide.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Simulation modeling for the design and evaluation of HIV drug resistance interventions: a systematic review of literature.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Participatory systems mapping: a review of population health research practice.Health research policy and systems · 2026Pooled it
- Navigating the Prescription Drug Information System.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Review
- Participatory System Mapping of a Hospice Care System With Hospice Stakeholders: Hybrid Design Workshop Study.Journal of participatory medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Rethinking barriers and facilitators in implementation science: conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges, and ways forward.Implementation science communications · 2026Article
- System Mapping of Farm-to-School Partnerships to Enhance Student Access to Healthy, Local Foods.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Using natural experiments to evaluate population health and health system interventions: new framework for producers and users of evidence.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Transforming trade for vaccine equity: Policy gaps and barriers.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- How Systems Mapping Can Be an Important Health Communication Tool.Journal of health communication · 2025Article
- Using qualitative systems mapping to analyze the linkages between the behavioral and social (BeSD) determinants of routine childhood immunization in LMICs.BMC public health · 2024Review
- Adaptation of the brainwriting premortem technique to inform the co-creation of COVID-19 testing strategies in underserved communities in South San Diego.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- DiScO: novel rapid systems mapping to inform digital transformation of health systems.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Predicting black ice-related accidents with probabilistic modeling using GIS-based Monte Carlo simulation.PloS one · 2024Article
- Toward Shared Decision-Making in Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- Community and partner engagement in dissemination and implementation research at the National Institutes of Health: an analysis of recently funded studies and opportunities to advance the field.Implementation science communications · 2023Article
- The use of participatory systems mapping as a research method in the context of non-communicable diseases and risk factors: a scoping review.Health research policy and systems · 2023Article
- The Application of Systems Thinking to the Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmissible Infections among Adolescents and Adults: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Applying a participatory systems and value approach in a transdisciplinary exercise: on assessing the impact of training and education initiatives.Health systems (Basingstoke, England) · 2023Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Systems mapping methods are increasingly used to study complex public health issues. Visualizing the causal relationships within a complex adaptive system allows for more than developing a holistic and multi-perspective overview of the situation. It is also a way of understanding the emergent, self-organizing dynamics of a system and how they can be influenced. This article describes a concrete approach for developing and analysing a systems map of a complex public health issue drawing on well-accepted methods from the field of social science while incorporating the principles of systems thinking and transdisciplinarity. Using our case study on HIV drug resistance in sub-Saharan Africa as an example, this article provides a practical guideline on how to map a public health problem as a complex adaptive system in order to uncover the drivers, feedback-loops and other dynamics behind the problem. Qualitative systems mapping can help researchers and policy makers to gain deeper insights in the root causes of the problem and identify complexity-informed intervention points.
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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.