Conceptual analysis of health systems resilience: A scoping review

System resilience has long been an area of study, and the term has become increasingly used across different sectors. Studies on resilience in health systems are more recent, multiplying particularly since the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for nat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 232; pp. 168 - 180
Main Authors: Turenne, Charlotte Pailliard, Gautier, Lara, Degroote, Stéphanie, Guillard, Etienne, Chabrol, Fanny, Ridde, Valéry
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2019
Pergamon Press Inc
Elsevier
Subjects:
Central government
Communication
Concept Formation
Conceptual analysis
Conceptual knowledge
Delivery of Health Care - methods
Delivery of Health Care - standards
Delivery of Health Care - trends
Ebola virus
Epidemics
Global Health - standards
Global Health - trends
Government Programs - standards
Health care
Health services
Health systems
Health systems resilience
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Organizational effectiveness
Public health
Resilience
Scoping review
Systematic review
Scoping review
Health systems
Health systems resilience
Conceptual analysis
Resilience
ISSN:0277-9536, 1873-5347, 1873-5347
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:System resilience has long been an area of study, and the term has become increasingly used across different sectors. Studies on resilience in health systems are more recent, multiplying particularly since the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for national governments to increase the resilience of their health systems. Concepts help define research objects and guide the analysis. Yet, to be useful, concepts need to be clear and precise. We aimed to improve the conceptual understanding of health systems resilience by conducting a scoping review to describe the state of knowledge in this area. We searched for literature in 10 databases, and analyzed data using a list of themes. We evaluated the clarity and the precision of the concept of health systems resilience using Daigneault & Jacob's three dimensions of a concept: term, sense, and referent. Of the 1091 documents initially identified, 45 met the inclusion criteria. Term: multiple terms are used, switching from one to the other to speak about the same subject. Sense: there is no consensus yet on a unique definition. Referent: the magnitude and nature of events that resilient health systems face differ with context, covering a broad range of situations from sudden crisis to everyday challenges. The lack of clarity in this conceptualization hinders the expansion of knowledge, the creation of reliable analytical tools, and the effectiveness of communication. The current conceptualization of health systems resilience is too scattered to enable the enhancement of this concept with great potential, opening a large avenue for future research. •In this paper, we provide a conceptual analysis of health systems resilience.•Based on the results of a scoping review, we argue that health systems resilience lacks conceptual maturity.•We call for clarification of the concept to guarantee effective communication and valid empirical study.
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ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.04.020