Assessing Implementation Strategy Reporting in the Mental Health Literature: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Inadequate implementation strategy reporting restricts research synthesis and replicability. We explored the implementation strategy reporting quality of a sample of mental health articles using Proctor et al.'s (Implement Sci 8:139, 2013) reporting recommendations. We conducted a narrative review to generate the sample of articles and assigned a reporting quality score to each article. The mean article reporting score was 54% (range 17-100%). The most reported domains were: name (100%), action (82%), target (80%), and actor (67%). The least reported domains included definition (6%), temporality (26%), justification (34%), and outcome (37%). We discuss limitations and provide recommendations to improve reporting.

Keywords: Implementation strategies; Mental health; Reporting.

Figure 1.. PRISMA diagram for literature search

Legend: Figure shows how many articles were included/excluded at each step.

Figure 2.. Percentages of implementation strategies reported for each domain

Figure shows the percentages of implementation strategies reported in total sample of studies for each domain.

Figure 3.. Articles’ adherence scores by year with prediction line

Figure shows the adherence scores of all included studies and predicted scores by year from 2007 to 2019.