Development of Public Health Core Outcome Sets for Systems-Wide Promotion of Early Life Health and Wellbeing

We aimed to develop a core outcome set (COS) for systems-wide public health interventions seeking to promote early life health and wellbeing. Research was embedded within the existing systems-based intervention research programme ‘ActEarly’, located in two different areas with high rates of child poverty, Bradford (West Yorkshire) and the Borough of Tower Hamlets (London). 168 potential outcomes were derived from five local government outcome frameworks, a community-led survey and an ActEarly consortium workshop. Two rounds of a Delphi study (Round 1: 37 participants; Round 2: 56 participants) reduced the number of outcomes to 64. 199 members of the community then took part in consultations across ActEarly sites, resulting in a final COS for systems-based public health interventions of 40 outcomes. These were grouped into the domains of: Development & education (N = 6); Physical health & health behaviors (N = 6); Mental health (N = 5); Social environment (N = 4); Physical environment (N = 7); and Poverty & inequality (N = 7). This process has led to a COS with outcomes prioritized from the perspectives of local communities. It provides the means to increase standardization and guide the selection of outcome measures for systems-based evaluation of public health programmes and supports evaluation of individual interventions within system change approaches.

Aim

The specific objectives of this COS development
were to:
1. Identify an agreed minimal dataset of potential outcomes from locally relevant
frameworks.
2. Achieve expert consensus on the COS through a two-stage Delphi consultation process.
3. Incorporate the perspective of the local communities in which early years and childhood interventions are targeted, in the COS development.
4. Arrive at a final COS-EY.

Contributors

Liina Mansukoski, Alexandra Albert, Yassaman Vafai, Chris Cartwright, Aamnah Rahman, Jessica Sheringham, Bridget Lockyer, Tiffany C. Yang, Philip Garnett, and Maria Bryant

Publication

Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume: 19
Issue:
Pages: 7947 -
Year: 2022
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19137947

Further Study Information

Current Stage: Completed
Date:
Funding source(s): : This research was funded by UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP), grant number MR/S037527/1. Individual projects within ActEarly receive funding from universities and directly from different funding agencies. The funders had no role in the design and planning of the present work. C.C. and A.R. were funded through the National Institute for Health Research under its Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber [NIHR200166] and J.S. was part funded by The National Institute for Health Research under its Applied Research Collaboration in North Thames. This report is independent research supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research ARC

Health Area

Disease Category: Public health

Disease Name: early life health

Target Population

Age Range: Unknown

Sex: Either

Nature of Intervention:

Stakeholders Involved

- Academic research representatives
- Clinical experts
- Governmental agencies
- Service users

Study Type

- COS for clinical trials or clinical research

Method(s)

- Consensus meeting
- Delphi process
- Literature review

a modified Delphi study consisting of two rounds of a consensus survey administered to our panel of experts and stakeholders, followed by a face-to-face public consultation with community members using ‘dot voting’ (details below). The initial list of potential outcomes was derived from existing local sources including: the Bradford Key Indicators set; Tower Hamlets key indicators; Tower Hamlets ‘I’ statements (publicly derived framework); the Tower Hamlet common outcomes framework; ActEarly community survey codes; and individual suggestions from stakeholders at previous ActEarly workshops

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