Complexity in public health interventions - Stakeholders' perspective: A qualitative analysis

Background: Public health interventions are mostly composed of several interconnected actions and hence they are popularly referred to as "Complex". The domain of complexity lacks clarity and the conceptual framework needs to be simplified and strengthened as till date most of the issues/concepts relating to this domain remain unexplored. This paper investigates the perception about complexity among people working in the area of public health. Study design and methodology: We adopted a qualitative study design and conducted unstructured interviews/dialogues/focus group discussions among people working in the public health domain on their perception about complexity. The process was audio-recorded and the interpretations were summarised. Responses were consolidated on the basis of five major sources complexity as depicted by Medical Research Council, UK guidance. Results and conclusion: This paper provides an outlook of people on how they perceive the complexity in public health interventions. Participants perceived complexity in a diverse manner which was evident from the varying responses obtained. Therefore there is a need for a strong theoretical base to understand complexity and also a concrete methodological framework to tackle it. The external validity of a public health research can be seriously affected in presence of complexity. Therefore it is necessary to adopt effective strategies to tackle complexity to obtain valid results.