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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1457591
This article is part of the Research Topic Reviews in Implementation Research in Aging and Public Health View all 3 articles

Perspective: Leveraging Review Protocols to Advance Implementation Science in Support of Older Adults' Health Equity

Provisionally accepted
Juanita-Dawne R. Bacsu Juanita-Dawne R. Bacsu 1*Avery Pottle Avery Pottle 2Florriann Fehr Florriann Fehr 1Megan Funk Megan Funk 1Matthew Lee Smith Matthew Lee Smith 3
  • 1 Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, Canada
  • 2 Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
  • 3 Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Globally, there has been an increasing call for dissemination and implementation science to improve the health equity of older adults. However, improving the health equity of older adults requires methods that allow for an in-depth understanding of the existing research. While the value of review articles is widely recognized, the value of publishing review protocols is an emerging paradigm with great potential to advance implementation science and aging research.In this article, we propose that prior to review articles, review protocols are necessary as they provide a clear and comprehensive search strategy, which greatly enhances the quality and rigor of reviews. More specifically, we argue that review protocols are indispensable because they support: 1) a clearly defined and comprehensive search methodology; 2) reviewer feedback to mitigate potential issues; and 3) registration to reduce risk of research replication. Additionally, we propose three strategies to accelerate review protocols in implementation science to support older adults' health equity.

    Keywords: health equity, review, protocol, implementation science, older adults, Aging

    Received: 01 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bacsu, Pottle, Fehr, Funk and Smith. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Juanita-Dawne R. Bacsu, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.