Characteristics of the studies using realist evaluation to assess interventions that address psychosocial healthcare issues in older adults: a scoping review.

RE is useful for promoting an understanding of how interventions work for addressing psychosocial healthcare issues in older adults. RE also promotes the updating of plausible theories that lead to improving interventions. Our findings show the implications of managing time and resources to address the challenge of RE's time and resource intensiveness and carefully considering the data collection methods to reduce burdens on older adults.