"Describing an innovative approach to the evaluation of complex healthcare interventions, this book allows reader to assess what interventions work, how and for whom. Proposing how realist evaluation methods may be incorporated within trials, this approach provides rigorous and useful evidence to inform policy decisions and scientific advancement"--

Chris Bonell is Professor of Public Health & Sociology in the Department of Public Health, Environments and Society, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research mainly focuses on adolescent health, sexual health and violence. He was involved in scientific advice to the UK government during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the areas of communication strategies and school interventions.

1. Introduction; 2. Why are trials and systematic reviews necessary but insufficient to inform health policy?; 3. Realist critiques and manifesto for evaluation and reviews; 4. Building realist theory in evaluations; 5. Refining realist theory through process evaluations; 6. Testing realist theory through trials or other evaluation designs; 7. Building and refining realist theory in systematic reviews; 8. Testing realist theory through synthesising outcome evaluations; 9. Using evidence to inform intervention scale-up and transfer; 10. Using evidence to refine middle range theory; Conclusions.