Table 7. Study population components

Eligibility criteria This outlines the characteristics someone must have to participate in the research. Eligibility criteria should be aligned with your research objectives and questions and can include criteria that can be used to either include or exclude a participant. Inclusion criteria typically relate to demographic and geographic factors and clinical or health related factors. In contrast, exclusion criteria refer to certain criteria that exclude a person who was otherwise eligible from participation. Exclusion criteria typically relate to factors that would negatively influence or interfere with the interpretation of the study outcome (e.g. TB patients under treatment in a different district, people with previous involvement in a particular type of digital technology under investigation, etc.).
Study settings Study settings refer to the location(s) and context your study will be conducted in, and any relevant dates or timelines, including periods of exposure to intervention, recruitment of participants, follow-up and data collection. The selected settings should reflect those settings in which the challenges investigated are common or most acute. This will increase the relevance of your findings to other similar settings (known as generalizability).
Intervention A description of the digital intervention being considered or implemented includes technical details of its functionality, how it is used, how it was designed, the process and timeline for implementation (or when the technology was introduced). Importantly, this description must include an overview of the intervention purpose, the implementation goal and a description of the target audience.