Exploratory studies to decide whether and how to proceed with full-scale evaluations of public health interventions: a systematic review of guidance

Hallingberg, Britt; Turley, Ruth; Segrott, Jeremy; Wight, Daniel; Craig, Peter; Moore, Laurence; Murphy, Simon; Robling, Michael; Simpson, Sharon Anne; Moore, Graham

doi:10.1186/s40814-018-0290-8

Pilot and Feasibility Studies

Table 2 Summary of included guidance

From: Exploratory studies to decide whether and how to proceed with full-scale evaluations of public health interventions: a systematic review of guidance

				Aims outlined and endorsed by authors^c
				Intervention			future evaluation
First author(s)	Document type	Greater relevance to public health^a	Nomenclature used	Refine	Implementation	Impact	Design feasibility	Parameter estimation
Arain et al. (2010) [19]	journal publication		pilot study^b				x
Arain et al. (2010) [19]	journal publication		feasibility study					x
Bowen et al. (2009) [39]	journal publication	✓	feasibility	x	x	x	x
Campbell et al. (2000) [9]	journal publication	✓	phase II stage; exploratory trial	x	x			x
Cook et al. (2014) [35]	report to funder		pilot study					x
Craig et al. (2008) [10]	funder report	✓	feasibility/piloting stage; pilot study	x			x	x
Dixon-Woods et al. (2004) [23]	journal publication		exploratory clinical trial/phase II
Eldridge, Chan et al. (2016) [7]	journal publication	✓	pilot trials^b			x	x	x
Eldridge, Chan et al. (2016) [7]	journal publication	✓	feasibility trials			x	x	x
Eldridge, Lancaster et al. (2016) [8]	journal publication	✓	pilot and feasibility studies^b
			-feasibility studies that are not pilot studies	x			x
			-non-randomised pilot studies				x
			-randomised pilot studies				x
Eldridge, Costelloe et al. (2016) [41]	journal publication		pilot study		x	x	x	x
Evans et al. (2013) [28]	journal publication	✓	feasibility and piloting stage
Feeley et al. (2009) [30]	journal publication		pilot study	x	x		x	x
Fletcher et al. (2016) [29]	journal publication	✓	pilot study^b	x	x		x
Fletcher et al. (2016) [29]	journal publication	✓	feasibility study	x	x		x
Hislop et al. (2014) [43]	journal publication		pilot study				x	x
Lancaster (2004) [36]	journal publication		pilot studies		x		x	x
Lancaster et al. (2015) [20]	journal publication		pilot and feasibility studies		x		x	x
Levati et al. (2016) [31]	journal publication	✓	pilot and feasibility studies	x
Moffatt et al. (2006) [42]	journal publication (worked example)	✓	pilot study
Möhler et al. (2012) [25]	journal publication		feasibility and piloting stage; pilot study		x
Möhler et al. (2013) [26]	journal publication		feasibility and piloting stage; pilot study		x
Möhler et al. (2015) [27]	journal publication		feasibility and piloting stage; pilot study		x
Medical Research Council (2000) [13]	funder report	✓	phase II stage; exploratory trial	x	x	x	x	x
National Institute for Health Research, ‘Feasibility and Pilot studies’ (Accessed 14/10/16)	funder document		pilot study^b			x		x
	funder document		feasibility study		x		x	x
National Institute for Health Research, ‘Progression rules for internal pilot studies for HTA trials’ (Accessed 14/10/16)	funder document		internal pilot studies				x
National Institute for Health Research, ‘Glossary’ (14/10/16)	funder website		pilot study^b			x	x
	funder website		feasibility study				x	x
O'Cathain et al. (2015) [15]	journal publication	✓	feasibility study	x	x	x	x
Shanyinde et al. (2011) [21]	journal publication		pilot / feasibility trials
Strong et al. (2009) [40]	journal publication	✓	pilot intervention		x		x
Taylor et al. (2015) [34]	book chapter	✓	pilot study^b		x		x
Taylor et al. (2015) [34]	book chapter	✓	feasibility study		x		x
Westlund et al. (2016) [38]	journal publication		pilot study		x		x
Wight et al. (2015) [6]	journal publication	✓	specific term not stated	x	x	x	x	x

^aGuidance with greater relevance to public health included those where public health audiences was clearly among intended users of the guidance (authors are from Public Health departments, cites literature from public health journals, provides public health examples or uses the term ‘public health’ or variants of this, e.g. ‘prevention science’, ‘health improvement’). Guidance with less relevance was not specific about the intended audience but was of plausible relevance to public health (might, for example, include either an author from a public health research department or a citation to a public health journal).
^bAuthors make distinctions between the terms “pilot study” and “feasibility study”. ^c Aims of exploratory studies presented in the table map onto aims presented in themes 3 (Guidance for intervention assessment) and 4 (Guidance surrounding the future evaluation design)

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