Exploring how to widen the acceptability of public health interventions: a systematic review protocol

Health interventions that require significant change to individual lifestyles or social norms can pose a challenge for widespread public acceptability and uptake. At the same time, over the last two decades, there has been increasing attention paid to the rise of populist movements globally, defined by 'the people' pushing against 'an elite' viewed as depriving the people of their sovereignty. To understand potential overlap in these two areas, this study aims to synthesise existing international evidence on linkages between populist attitudes and reduced uptake, acceptability, adherence and/or effectiveness of public health interventions. The goal of this work is to create a conceptual framework that can be used to inform policy strategies aimed at widening the impact of public health interventions.

A systematic review will be performed via searches across databases and websites relevant to public health and social science research, informed by preliminary searches on the topic. There will be no language restrictions, but included studies will be limited to those produced since 2008, the year of the global financial crisis, from which most current literature on populism dates. Risk of bias will be assessed using validated tools according to study design. Due to expected heterogeneity across included studies, this will be a systematic review without meta-analysis. Findings will be synthesised narratively, and the strength of the evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. The review will be reported according to the Systematic Reviews without Meta-Analysis reporting guidelines.

Ethical review is not required for this study. Public dissemination will be informed via consultation with our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Strategy Group, along with reporting via peer-reviewed publication, relevant international conferences, a policy brief and a workshop with public health and communications experts.

CRD42024513124.