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. 2019 Jun 6;14:56. doi: 10.1186/s13012-019-0899-x

Table 3.

Overview of the key ways in which the terms dose, dose delivered and dose received were conceptualised across the included intervention studies

Operationalisation Dose or dosage Dose delivered Dose received
Planned intervention
 Amount of intervention planned (e.g. number of intervention components planned; intended length of intervention components)
Intervention delivery
 Number of intervention components delivered
 Length/duration of intervention components
 Frequency of delivery of intervention components
 Completeness of intervention delivery (amount of intervention components delivered as a proportion of those planned)
 Intensity of intervention
 Availability of intervention
 Content of intervention components (and degree to which these were delivered as planned)
Intervention receipt
 Number of intervention components received
 Exposure
 Reach
 Attendance
 Completion of intervention activities
 Use of intervention materials
 Extent of engagement with intervention
Other concepts
 Number of people trained to deliver intervention
 Commitment to intervention
 Satisfaction with intervention
 Perceptions of intervention feasibility

Note: While some of the concepts in this table would perhaps not usually be considered to be part of dose, this synthesis is based on a consideration of how dose was defined and operationalised in practice across the included articles. We explore the implications for these conceptualisations of dose in the ‘Discussion’ section