Implementation science is an emergent subdiscipline of evidence-based medicine that focuses on different approaches for effectively introducing clinical interventions to targeted patient populations. Oftentimes, interventions are unsuccessful due to failure to account for sources of diversity and cultural barriers that impede application and adherence.
Our aim is to discuss the importance of centering population and setting when designing the intervention and its implementation. In a review of the recent literature, we compared multiple research studies that focus their methods on using qualities of population and setting to improve intervention outcomes. Through these studies, we highlight significant cultural determinants that can reveal implementation limitations and help detect opportunities for revision. However, the nature of this research prevents meta-analysis by methodological heterogeneity and lack of quantitative data. Our findings summarize that revising an evidence-based intervention to reflect the cultural and demographic influences impacting a target population can maximize intervention efficacy and more effectively meet the scientific and social objectives of the implementation.
