Natural experiments for the evaluation of place-based public health interventions: a methodology scoping review.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Place-based public health evaluations are increasingly making use of natural experiments. This scoping review aimed to provide an overview of the design and use of natural experiment evaluations (NEEs), and an assessment of the plausibility of the as-if randomization assumption.

Methods

A systematic search of three bibliographic databases (Pubmed, Web of Science and Ovid-Medline) was conducted in January 2020 to capture publications that reported a natural experiment of a place-based public health intervention or outcome. For each, study design elements were extracted. An additional evaluation of as-if randomization was conducted by 12 of this paper's authors who evaluated the same set of 20 randomly selected studies and assessed 'as-if ' ra

SUBMITTER: Albers PN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10323422 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature