Wodnik Breanna K, Namyalo Prossy Kiddu, Michaelides Ophelia, Essue Beverley M, Kane Sumit, Di Ruggiero Erica
Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, University of Toronto, 155 College St, Suite 425, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada.
Centre for Global Health, University of Toronto, 155 College St, Suite 408, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada.
Health Policy Plan. 2025 Mar 7;40(3):422-427. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czae119.
Delphi studies are rapidly gaining prominence in global health research. However, researchers' modifications to the Delphi method are often not well-described or justified, limiting opportunities to systematically learn from these studies when the methods are applied to other topics and settings. This paper aims to describe an approach to implementing a modified Delphi study and reflect on the research process in the context of a multicountry study of implementation science research priorities to advance Universal Health Coverage (UHC). We review trends in the use of the modified Delphi method in global health research, outline our three-phased modified Delphi approach, and share reflections on five decision points for implementing the study: (I) identifying and recruiting participants for the expert panel, (II) addressing participant attrition between rounds, (III) justifying the most appropriate cutoff points, (IV) incorporating new items raised by participants in open-ended survey sections, and (V) ensuring maximum variation in perspective in the panel of experts. Insights from this work foster greater understanding of the underlying assumptions for, and interpretation of, 'modified' in modified Delphi studies. This study will encourage critical dialogue about points of methodological contention in Delphi methodology and thus are relevant for scaling the use of modified Delphi studies in public health, including global health research.
德尔菲研究在全球卫生研究中迅速崭露头角。然而，研究人员对德尔菲方法的修改往往描述不清或缺乏依据，这限制了在将这些方法应用于其他主题和环境时系统学习这些研究的机会。本文旨在描述实施改良德尔菲研究的方法，并在一项推进全民健康覆盖（UHC）的实施科学研究重点的多国研究背景下反思研究过程。我们回顾了全球卫生研究中使用改良德尔菲方法的趋势，概述了我们的三阶段改良德尔菲方法，并分享了对实施该研究的五个决策点的思考：（I）确定和招募专家小组的参与者；（II）解决各轮之间的参与者流失问题；（III）说明最合适的截止点的理由；（IV）纳入参与者在开放式调查部分提出的新项目；（V）确保专家小组中观点的最大多样性。这项工作的见解有助于更深入地理解改良德尔菲研究中“改良”的潜在假设和解释。本研究将鼓励就德尔菲方法中方法学争议点进行批判性对话，因此对于扩大改良德尔菲研究在公共卫生（包括全球卫生研究）中的应用具有相关性。
