Theory and co-creation as complementary principles in public health interventions

Scope

Translation of theory into practice is a common challenge in public health, in particular in healthcare settings. Although an intervention may be theoretically effective in improving health or organizational outcomes, its effectiveness depends on how it fits with the conditions in which it is implemented. This conference aims to deepen our understanding of how contextual factors can be taken into account when developing and implementing health interventions and identify strategies that facilitate their embedding in everyday practice.

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Program : Friday 4th of December

• 9:30 AM: Welcome coffee
   
• 10 AM – 12 PM: Symposium on implementation studies

This session is intended for PhD students, researchers, and policymakers interested in or involved in implementing public health interventions. Presentations will focus on the barriers and facilitators encountered in interventional studies, as well as on methods and results related to implementation evaluation. Participants interested in presenting their research are invited to submit an abstract within the registration form before October 16

• 12 PM – 1 PM: Lunch 
   
• 1 PM – 3 PM: “Together we can make context explicit”. Rik Crutzen and Lisa Harms

How can we systematically incorporate context into the development, implementation, and adaptation of interventions in (mental) health promotion? In this presentation, we will argue that Intervention Mapping provides a systematic framework for addressing this question using theoretical and empirical information from research and practice in the field of public health and mental health care. Rather than viewing theory and co-creation as competing principles, we explore how they can complement each other to develop interventions that are both theoretically sound and responsive to their context. We demonstrate how Acyclic Behaviour Change Diagrams (ABCDs) can facilitate making behaviour change assumptions explicit. By connecting the logic of intervention development with the logic of implementation science, we will illustrate how ABCDs can also be used to support systematic adaptation of interventions. We invite participants to join us in a discussion about the opportunities and challenges of making context explicit. 

Rik Crutzen is a Professor of Behaviour Change & Technology at the Department of Health Promotion, Care and Public Health Research Institute, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. A central theme in his work is the systematic development, implementation, and evaluation of behaviour change interventions (e.g., using and developing the Intervention Mapping approach) with a keen eye on the potential and challenges of using technology in such interventions. He has a strong focus on methodological and theoretical progress, especially to foster understanding of behaviour as a crucial first step in intervention development.

Lisa Harms is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Promotion, Care and Public Health Research Institute at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. She has a background in nutrition and health promotion, and her research focuses on developing, adapting and implementing lifestyle interventions. She is particularly interested in implementation science and explores how interventions can be adapted to fit different contexts better, thereby supporting their successful adoption and impact.