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Table 1 Key definitions: context, mechanism, and outcome

From: Strategies for incorporating patient-reported outcomes in the care of people with chronic kidney disease (PRO kidney): a protocol for a realist synthesis

Term

Definition

Context

The conditions “that triggers and/or modifies the behaviour of mechanisms” [41].

Mechanism

The causal forces that generate outcomes, yet they are not linear, arising from the diverse participants and contexts [22].

Outcome

The “intended outcomes (did the project succeed against the criteria it set itself at the outset)…, the intermediate outcomes as well as unplanned and/or unexpected impacts” [42].