ArticleThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2022
The ENCOMPASS framework: a practical guide for the evaluation of public health programmes in complex adaptive systems.
Article in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06185413 (Children's Cooperation Denmark), which is not on this map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Children's Cooperation Denmark (Child-COOP): Promoting Healthy Physical Activity Behaviour in Children Aged 6-12 Years: a 3-year System Dynamics Trial
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interventions to prevent obesity in children aged 2 to 4 years old.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- A Health Promoting School Intervention in 10th Grade ("My Life - I Decide"): Protocol for a Pragmatic Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Trial
- Implementation and systems impact of a systems-based health promotion programme at Danish vocational schools: results after 2-years follow-up.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- 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
- Using systems archetypes to understand system behaviour and identify leverage points for change in local obesity prevention in The Netherlands.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Implementation evaluation of a whole systems approach (WSA) to childhood overweight and obesity in local communities: findings from the Children and Families Pilot in Wales, UK.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- [Working across sectors and with citizens to create a healthy living environment: what works, why, and in what context].TSG : tijdschrift voor gezondheidswetenschappen · 2026Article
- The effectiveness of JU:MP a whole system approach to improve physical activity of children aged 5 to 11 years living in multi-ethnic and socio-economically deprived communities: a non-randomised controlled trial.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Towards a complex systems model of evidence for public health.BMJ global health · 2025Review
- Applying system dynamics methods for local obesity prevention: results from a group model building study in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Integrated methods for public health action tracking (IMPAcT): to understand and evaluate systems change in a public health context.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- If things were simple, word would have gotten around. Can complexity science help us improve pediatric research?Pediatric research · 2025Review
- Applying a participatory system dynamics approach to childhood overweight and obesity in the local context: reflections from the LIKE project.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Article
- Developing Group Model-Building Workshops for Children's Healthy Living Food Systems.Current developments in nutrition · 2025Article
- Monitoring and adaptation of a system dynamics approach to prevent childhood overweight and obesity: findings from the LIKE programme.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Article
- Identification of Clusters in a Population With Obesity Using Machine Learning: Secondary Analysis of The Maastricht Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2025Article
- 'It's about collaboration': a whole-systems approach to understanding and promoting movement in Suffolk.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSystems thinking embraces the complexity of public health problems, including childhood overweight and obesity. It aids in understanding how factors are interrelated, and it can be targeted to produce favourable changes in a system. There is a growing call for systems approaches in public health research, yet limited practical guidance is available on how to evaluate public health programmes within complex adaptive systems. The aim of this paper is to present an evaluation framework that supports researchers in designing systems evaluations in a comprehensive and practical way.
methodsWe searched the literature for existing public health systems evaluation studies. Key characteristics on how to conduct a systems evaluation were extracted and compared across studies. Next, we overlaid the identified characteristics to the context of the Lifestyle Innovations Based on Youth Knowledge and Experience (LIKE) programme evaluation and analyzed which characteristics were essential to carry out the LIKE evaluation. This resulted in the Evaluation of Programmes in Complex Adaptive Systems (ENCOMPASS) framework.
resultsThe ENCOMPASS framework includes five iterative stages: (1) adopting a system dynamics perspective on the overall evaluation design; (2) defining the system boundaries; (3) understanding the pre-existing system to inform system changes; (4) monitoring dynamic programme output at different system levels; and (5) measuring programme outcome and impact in terms of system changes.
conclusionsThe value of ENCOMPASS lies in the integration of key characteristics from existing systems evaluation studies, as well as in its practical, applied focus. It can be employed in evaluating public health programmes in complex adaptive systems. Furthermore, ENCOMPASS provides guidance for the entire evaluation process, all the way from understanding the system to developing actions to change it and to measuring system changes. By the nature of systems thinking, the ENCOMPASS framework will likely evolve further over time, as the field expands with more completed studies.
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.