Table 4 Identified knowledge gaps

Study design

• Lack of experimental or interventional studies on the impact of narratives on health policy-making in real-life settings

• Lack of qualitative studies to better understand the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of policy-makers towards narratives

Intervention

• Limited evidence on the effects of narratives (as standalone) independent of other interventions (e.g. the use of social media)

• Limited description of the narrative intervention (including frequency and duration of exposure, content of narrative (e.g. plot and characters) and perceived credibility of speaker of message)

• Lack of evidence comparing different narrative formats (e.g. verbal print, audio, video) and perspectives (first- versus third-person narrative)

• Limited description of the framework or theory guiding intervention development

• Variations in definitions and operationalisation of narrative information

Study setting

• Limited evidence on the effects of narratives on health policy-making across cultural settings and countries

• Limited evidence from low-income countries

• Lack of evidence from the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Region of the Americas and Western Pacific Region

Population

• Lack of evidence on the effect of moderators, such as policy-makers’ characteristics

Outcomes

• Limited evidence on the impact on policy stages (in general)

• Lack of evidence evaluating the impact on policy evaluation stage

• No valid measurement of the impact on the outcomes of interest (e.g. no actual evaluation or assessment based on perceptions of respondents)