Community engagement and implementation science: a hermeneutic review for implementation scientists

Community engagement is increasingly part of implementation research. However, some implementation scientists are less familiar with how to use community engagement approaches in implementation research. This hermeneutic review explores the gaps in community engagement within implementation research and examines community engagement approaches for implementation researchers.

We conducted a hermeneutic review to synthesize information in the literature on community engagement in implementation research. We searched PubMed related to community engagement and implementation research. Articles were eligible for inclusion if they were published in English, had full-text available and were likely to add meaning and valuable insights to address our research questions. The review involved multiple, iterative rounds of interpretation. We examined commonly reported community engagement approaches in implementation research. We also reported potential benefits, risks, and epistemic considerations of each approach.

A total of 477 citations were identified and 67 studies were included. Crowdsourcing, participatory modeling, qualitative research, co-creation, community capacity strengthening and community advisory boards can engage communities in implementation research. Each approach has unique benefits, risks, and epistemic considerations. Beyond the many substantive and technical reasons to engage communities, there is an epistemic rationale for robust community engagement. Researchers who deeply engage local communities may be able to provide an opportunity for transformative social change. However, tokenistic community engagement and minimal engagement are both common.

Although community engagement has great potential to enhance implementation research, it has not received the attention it deserves. Community engagement can contribute to deeper alliances between researchers and communities, sparking social change needed to improve health equity.