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BACKGROUND The role of the context within intervention studies is often ignored. To consider the context in future research, one needs to know whether enough information is available, and a uniform methodology to study the local context in a standardized way is desirable. Through the World Wide Web, a lot of information is nowadays available. OBJECTIVE The present study aims to test the feasibility of studying the local context with online information and to provide a stepwise approach how to detect these relevant contextual factors which might moderate the effect of an intervention. METHODS The present study is framed within the D-SCOPE project, where a complex intervention by means of home visits was set up to improve the access to tailored care in 3 municipalities (Ghent, Knokke-Heist and Tienen). A case study of these three municipalities was performed to determine which contextual factors could influence the D-SCOPE intervention, a five-step approach was designed and tested: (1) a theoretical/conceptual discussion of relevant contextual factor domains was held; (2) a search was done to find appropriate web-based public datasets which covered these topics with standardized information (e.g., official statistics); (3) a list of all identified contextual factors was made (inventory); (4) a concise list with the assumedly most relevant contextual factors was made by two independent reviewers to reduce the long list of contextual factors+; and (5) a Nominal Grouping Technique was applied. RESULTS Based on the aims of the D-SCOPE intervention, the research team decided that the datasets should cover sociodemographic contextual factors, socioeconomic contextual factors, contextual factors related to care supply/availability or care use and contextual factors related to the local government. The team also decided to use only standardized data. Three public web-based datasets were found resulting in an inventory of 157 contextual factors. After the selection by two independent reviewers, 41 contextual factors were left over and presented in the Nominal Grouping Technique. According to the Nominal Grouping Technique, contextual factors such as: dependency ratio (65+/20-64y), availability of a community center, percentage of people aged 65 or more living alone, and the total resources of the community social security system were considered as most decisive. CONCLUSIONS The present study shows that the five-step approach is feasible to determine relevant contextual factors that might affect the results of an intervention study. Such information may be used to correct for in the statistical analyses and for interpretation of the outcomes of intervention studies. CLINICALTRIAL none |
