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Table 1 Definitions of terms used

From: From intervention to interventional system: towards greater theorization in population health intervention research

Label

Definition

Sources

Intervention research

The use of scientific methods to produce knowledge about policy and program interventions that operate within or outside of the health sector and have the potential to impact health at the population level

Hawe, 2009 [1]

Intervention

A series of inter-related events occurring within a system where the change in outcome (attenuated or amplified) is not proportional to the change in input. Interventions are thus considered as ongoing social processes rather than fixed and bounded entities

Hawe et al., 2009 [11]

Context

Spatial and temporal conjunction of events, individuals and social interactions generating causal mechanisms that interact with the intervention and possibly modifying its outcomes by

Poland, Frohlich and Cargo, 2008 [4]

Mechanism

Entities and activities organized such that they are productive of regular changes from start or set-up to finish or termination of conditions

Machamer et al [14]

An element of reasoning and reaction of an agent with regard to an intervention productive of an outcome in a given context

Ridde et al. 2012 [16]; Lacouture 2015 [15]

The processes by which a behavior change technique regulates behavior

Michie et al. 2013 [8]

Interventional system

A set of interrelated human and non-human contextual agents within spatial and temporal boundaries generating mechanistic configurations – mechanisms – which are prerequisites for change in health

This article

Classic theory

Theories that originate from fields external to implementation science, e.g. psychology, sociology and organizational theory, which can be applied to provide understanding and/or explanation of aspects of implementation

Nilsen 2015 [31]

Implementation theory

Theories that have been developed by implementation researchers (from scratch or by adapting existing theories and concepts) to provide understanding and/or explanation of aspects of implementation

Nilsen 2015 [31]