Ethnographic methods for process evaluations of complex health behaviour interventions

• Published in: Current controlled trials in cardiovascular medicine Vol. 17; no. 1; p. 232
• Main Authors: Morgan-Trimmer, Sarah, Wood, Fiona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 04.05.2016; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Anthropology; Anthropology, Cultural; Cultural anthropology; Cultural Characteristics; Culture; Data collection; Ethnography; Health behavior; Health Behavior - ethnology; Health counseling; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice - ethnology; Humans; Intervention; Methods; Models, Theoretical; Process Assessment (Health Care) - methods; Public health; Qualitative Research; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Research Design; Research Subjects - psychology; Social Behavior; Treatment Outcome; United Kingdom; United States > US; Chicago Illinois; Qualitative research; Ethnography; Randomised controlled trials; Complex interventions
• ISSN: 1745-6215; 1745-6215
• DOI: 10.1186/s13063-016-1340-2

This article outlines the contribution that ethnography could make to process evaluations for trials of complex health-behaviour interventions. Process evaluations are increasingly used to examine how health-behaviour interventions operate to produce outcomes and often employ qualitative methods to do this. Ethnography shares commonalities with the qualitative methods currently used in health-behaviour evaluations but has a distinctive approach over and above these methods. It is an overlooked methodology in trials of complex health-behaviour interventions that has much to contribute to the understanding of how interventions work. These benefits are discussed here with respect to three strengths of ethnographic methodology: (1) producing valid data, (2) understanding data within social contexts, and (3) building theory productively. The limitations of ethnography within the context of process evaluations are also discussed.