How do participatory citizenship models inform co-production in health research? A Systematic Review

Background: Co-production within health research has increased rapidly over the past two decades, enabling citizens to shape health policy and practice. Yet, co-production can be shallow or undemocratic, providing little opportunity for meaningful citizen involvement. Participatory citizenship models are frameworks that outline the criteria by which citizens to belong and participate in a society. This review aimed to identify how participatory citizenship is enabled through co-production.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted of studies in which a participatory citizenship model informed co-production strategies in health research.

Findings: Of 215 unique articles, 13 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the synthesis. Four aspects characteristic of how participatory citizenship models inform co-production in health research were identified. These were, Aspect 1) Coproduction enables diverse citizens to participate in health research; Aspect 2) Citizens’ lived-experience contextualises and shapes all stages of the health research process; Aspect 3) Coproduction shares power and ownership between citizens and research teams; and, Aspect 4) Coproduction through health research enables citizens to actively participate in the development of their communities. The first three aspects enable the fourth aspect to be fully enacted within a research project.

Conclusion: Citizenship-informed co-production ensures research enables local citizens to apply their lived-experience and local knowledge to shape community health and is valuable to policymakers and practitioners working to reduce health inequalities. Researchers are encouraged to engage with these four aspects through authentic co-production. The authors present a set of recommendations for researchers based on the findings of the synthesis.