Abstract
Background: Preventing and managing chronic illness necessitates multilevel, theory-based interventions targeting behaviors, environmental factors, and personal determinants that increase risk for illness onset, greater burden, and poorer outcomes.
Objectives: The purpose of this article is to provide the basis for multilevel interventions, describe community-engaged intervention mapping as an approach to designing theory-based interventions, and discuss potential benefits of applying community-engaged intervention mapping in preparing nurse scientists to build programs of interdisciplinary research in preventing and managing chronic illness.
Methods: Community-engaged intervention mapping integrates two methodological approaches: intervention mapping and community-engaged research.
Results: The six-step intervention mapping approach provides a logical structure for preparing nurse scientists in designing, adapting, and implementing multilevel, theory-based interventions. Community-engaged research approaches offer principles and direction for engaging patients, clinicians, community members, and other stakeholders throughout the research process. Integrating these methods retains the theoretical integrity of interventions; improves the relevance and timely completion of the research and its products; and enhances intended beneficiaries and the community's understanding, trust, and use of the results.
Discussion: Potential benefits of preparation in community-engaged intervention mapping to nurse scientists and nursing science include explicit consideration of multilevel factors influencing health. Additional benefits include guidance for linking relevant constructs from behavior- and environment-oriented theories with evidence-based methods for affecting desired changes in care and quality of life outcomes. Moreover, enhancement of the theoretical fidelity of the intervention, explication of the mechanisms influencing change in the primary outcome, and improved relevance and feasibility of interventions for intended beneficiaries and potential adopters are other benefits.