Table 1 Comparisons of sustainability definitions
From: Sustainability of public health interventions: where are the gaps?
Sustainability factors compared among frameworks | Definition constructs – Lennox et al. [9] | Description – Lennox et al. [9] | Definition constructs – Moore et al. [8] | Description – Moore et al. [8] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Core activity | Continued programme activities | The ability of activities to continue, appropriate to the local context, after withdrawal of external funding | Continued delivery or institutionalisation of a clinical intervention or programme | Whether an organisation or community is continuing to provide a programme (such as delivering multidimensional treatment foster care) or continuing to use the strategies necessary to support behaviour change (e.g. education, audit and feedback) |
Recipient benefits | Continued health benefits | The ability to sustain population health outcomes | Continued health benefits for individuals/systems | Maintenance of outcomes after initial implementation phase |
Implementation | Not included | Maintenance of behaviour change at individual clinician/patient level | Whether the implementer is following the recommendations of the evidence-based programme, guideline, or practice (how the implementer is interacting with patients, clients or community members) | |
Adaptation | Evolution/Adaptation | Adapting successfully to change and providing a range of valued service delivery opportunities and practices in an effective and efficient manner | Evolution/Adaptation | Either changes in the programme or implementation strategies or changes in individual’s maintenance of behaviour |
Organisational value | Capacity-building | Relates to inter-organisational relationships that might serve as the basis of collaborative problem-solving capacity | Not included | |
Cost-benefit | Recovering costs | The ability of an organisation to produce outputs of sufficient value so that it acquires enough inputs to continue production at a steady or growing rate | Not included | |
Longitudinal PErspective | Not included | Time | Not elaborately described although assertions such as “after initial funding ends” and “over time” are used to denote time |