Realist approach to community-based participatory research on a community health break-down in Japan: mechanism reasoning, knowledge and a trust partnership

Background: Our 10-year programme of community health regeneration and community-based participatory research (CBPR) was initially unknown. However, we succeeded in creating a collaboration between residents, medical staff, and administrative staff. We adopted a realist approach as an evaluation method. Methods: The realist approach evaluates a programme using a Context-Mechanism-Outcome configuration (CMOc), which is a relatively new methodology. First, the programme manager summarised the entire programme, conducted questionnaires and interviews with seven core members, and summarised each into a CMOc. The programme was evaluated with particular focus on mechanistic reasoning. Results: The number of doctors and nurses increased and residents became more active. The success factors were the acquisition of participants' knowledge and trust partnerships. In addition, it was important that the timing of the activity was good and that the participants were highly conscious. Conclusions: The 10-year CBPR was examined using a realist evaluation method. Knowledge acquisition and trust partnerships are important for reasoning mechanism.