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Table 4 Study characteristics

From: Change and improvement 50 years in the making: a scoping review of the use of soft systems methodology in healthcare

 

Number of studies

%

Healthcare setting

 Hospital

15

30.6

 Policy

9

18.4

 Mental health

5

10.2

 Community

4

8.2

 Multiple settings

4

8.2

 Aged care

2

4.1

 Primary care

2

4.1

 Public health

2

4.1

 Health informatics management organisations

2

4.1

 Ambulatory care

1

2

 Ambulance service

1

2

 End-of-life care

1

2

 Blood collection establishments

1

2

Method

 Qualitative

34

69.4

 Mixed methods

14

28.6

 Quantitative

1

2

Study design

 Case study

43

87.7

 Cross-sectional

2

4.1

 Longitudinal

2

4.1

 Experimental design

2

4.1

Data collection methoda

 Interviews

38

77.6

 Observations

17

34.7

 Focus groups interviews

14

28.6

 Workshops/group discussions

14

28.6

 Survey

8

16.3

 Literature review

7

14.3

 Document analysis

5

10.2

 Administrative data

4

8.2

Number of data collection methods used

 1

17

34.7

 2

12

24.5

 3

17

34.7

 4

 5

2

4.1

 6

1

2

Quality assessment

 High quality

22

44.9

 Medium quality

21

42.9

 Low quality

6

12.2

  1. aPercentage exceeds 100 because some studies used multiple data collection methods