Rappresentatività ed efficacia : due dimensioni critiche della partecipazione nei sistemi sanitari : una revisione della letteratura

Democratic innovations involving citizens in decision-making processes are increasingly widespread and many participation initiatives have been implemented in health systems. How-ever, the degree of institutionalization of participation is still far from being satisfactory, de-spite the many efforts made. Starting from this context, a literature review was carried out with the aim of analyzing two critical areas of participation in health systems: ‘representativeness' and ‘effectiveness.'

Representativeness emerges as a particularly problematic aspect and many studies have observed that descriptive or statistical representation cannot be considered the only form of legitimizing participation. With regard to effectiveness, many articles have high-lighted the lack of studies evaluating the effects of participation in health systems and the urgency of designing solid and reliable evaluation models. [Publisher's text]