Abstract for: Success of Community-Based Methods in System Dynamics

The use of system dynamics in public health and health promotion is growing. While insights from qualitative and quantitative models alongside participation and engagement goals are helpful, other measures of success are not well understood. This study aimed to explore success of community-based efforts to apply system dynamics in public health and health promotion. I examined a total of 52 community-based examples of system dynamics, across four individual studies. This included examples that aimed to build capacity in system dynamics amongst local government staff, published examples documented in the peer reviewed literature, interviews with community-based practitioners, and the application of group model building to improve the wellbeing of children across multiple communities. Community-based examples of system dynamics demonstrated the importance of locally-led adaptations, alongside wide variations in measures of success documented in the peer-reviewed literature. Additional concepts of success were documented by community-based practitioners that highlighted the complexity of implementation and evaluation, alongside the importance of shorter-term shifts in leadership, engagement and power dynamics as measures of success. Finally, shifts in mental models were documented in multiple communities using group model building. This provides the first synthesis of success of community-based system dynamics in both research and community settings. Findings from this research are applicable beyond public health and are relevant to other community-based efforts that aim to address complex community problems.