Skip to main content

Table 3 Definitions for Data Extraction

From: What matters in development and sustainment of community dementia friendly initiatives and why? A realist multiple case study

Context pertains to the backdrop of an intervention [37]. Context includes the pre-existing organisational structures; the cultural norms and history of the community; the nature and scope of pre-existing networks; and geographic location effects, such as social and physical environment or previous experience with dementia-friendly initiatives [37].

Mechanisms are not interventions. They are the – often invisible – forces, powers, processes or interactions that lead to (or inhibit) change. They can be found in the choices, reasoning and decisions that people make as a result of the resources; the interactions between individuals or groups; and the powers and liabilities that things, people or institutions have as a result of their position in a group or society [38]. Mechanisms are ‘triggered’ when (program) resources (e.g. information, money, expertise) interact with specific features of the context (individual, interpersonal, organizational, or institutional) [25].

Mechanisms resources refer to what is triggered among the context of participants/stakeholders [36, 37].

Mechanisms response refers to the responses of the participants, all that suggests a change in people’s minds and actions [36, 37].

Outcomes are the results of how people react to the mechanisms. Outcomes are either intended or unintended and can be proximal, intermediate and final [26, 27].

Outcomes can be labelled as:

• observed (the participant stated during interviews or observations that it had happened);

• anticipated (it had not happened yet but the participant expected it to); or

• implied (no explicit mention of the outcome was made but the data enabled the research team to infer, tentatively, that the participant had observed or anticipated it) [27].

Labelling levels of change in mechanisms:

• Individual changes include individuals’ skills and knowledge relating to dementia and DFIs, as well as the motivation, attitudes, commitment and values that affect individual behaviour [27].

• Interpersonal and network change refers to the relationships and networks between individuals and groups that influence development or sustainability of DFIs [27].

• Organisational change refers to the systems, policies and procedures, practices, culture and norms within an organisation that affect the access and resources needed to develop and sustain DFIs [27].

• Institutional change relates to the wider environment within which individuals, networks and organisations operate. This includes the political system, civil society and the media, political and economic factors, and broader social factors (culture, norms, collective beliefs) that influence the development and sustainability of DFIs [27].