Effective approaches to public involvement in care home research: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Public involvement (often referred to as patient and public involvement or PPI) integrates the voices of the public in health and care research. However, groups such as care home residents are often excluded from involvement opportunities due to the complexities of involving people with additional care and communication needs. Despite a range of approaches being used, there is little understanding about how best to incorporate their experiences, and those of other care home stakeholders, into the design and conduct of research.

A systematic review was conducted to identify PPI methods that better meet the specific needs of care home stakeholders. This was undertaken by (1) outlining effective PPI approaches used in care home research and the key stakeholders involved; (2) describing the role of PPI in different care home contexts and (3) identifying stakeholders' experiences and attitudes towards PPI in care homes.

Databases CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for English language papers from inception to November 2021. A narrative synthesis approach was utilised to organise the extracted data into five themes.

The search initially yielded 2314 articles (following de-duplication), with 27 meeting the inclusion criteria. Articles reported a range of input from stakeholders (including residents, staff, relatives and community stakeholders), with the impact of PPI varying according to the type of care establishment and research context. The experiences and reflections of stakeholders' about their involvement in care home research varied, with some studies offering first-hand accounts compared with summaries from researchers. Some articles explicitly evaluated the effectiveness of the PPI approach using specific outcome measures whilst others indirectly described the impact of their approach. Five themes were identified as characterising an effective PPI approach: (1) valuing stakeholders' perspectives, (2) awareness of the multi-faceted research context, (3) ensuring inclusivity and transparency, (4) maintaining flexibility and adaptability and (5) utilising resources and wider support.

Effective PPI in care home research requires researchers to create person-centred opportunities to adequately involve groups with physical and cognitive impairments. The findings led to the creation of evidence-based practical recommendations to support future involvement opportunities and help researchers develop strategies for inclusive opportunities for involvement.

The review was prospectively registered on PROPSERO (CRD42021293353).