Developing the evidence base of involvement

2008 Conference

User involvement needs a robust evidence-base for its future development and for its continued funding. The current evidence-base has been reported as partial, conceptually limited, lacking a coherent structure and does not always address the impact of involvement or report this clearly.

This paper will present the initial findings of a structured literature review which is attempting to collate the evidence underpinning the way involvement is defined, conceptualised, measured and assessed, in terms of outcome and impact in organisational development and evaluation.

We will be using key search terms and applying them to a range of international databases, including Medline, Cinahl, Embase, Sociofile and Psychlit from 1997 to 2008. We will also be searching grey or unpublished literature.

In this first major review we are using robust systematic methods of searching literature, working with a range of users and combining this with an attempt to re-conceptualise or think differently about what we mean by evidence of involvement and how impact can be demonstrated.

We hope that the outcome of the review will provide researchers with detailed guidance on how to report studies of involvement and so contribute to the development of a coherent evidence base for the future. We hope the presentation will stimulate debate about the need for an evidence base in user involvement and discussion about the nature of this evidence.