Increasing the use of intervention research evidence in public health policy and practice: roles of policy makers, practitioners, researchers and funders in research generation and utilization

Abstract

The effective application of research evidence to guide public health policy and practice is an ongoing and significant challenge which was investigated in this thesis through 6 separate but related studies organised under 4 research themes: 1) frameworks for translating research evidence into policy and practice; 2) types of research used to inform public health action; 3) scaling up public health action; and 4) impacts of research. Methodologies used included systematic reviews, case studies, bibliometric and content analysis, document review, surveys, in-depth interviews and expert consensus processes. It was found that the translation models can be used to better understand the use of research evidence in ‘real world’ policy and practice. A bibliomteric analysis found that intervention research remains only a small proportion of published literature across health issues and timeframes (between 10-23%). Studies that focused on scaling up resulted in the development of a guide and concluded that more intervention research that focuses on the effectiveness, reach, and costs of operating at scale and key service delivery issues (including acceptability and fit of interventions and delivery models) will increase relevance and ultimately usability of research evidence for scaling up population health action. Finally, an assessment of the impacts of a government applied research funding scheme found that projects achieved the greatest policy and practice impacts if they engaged end-users from the inception, utilized existing policy networks and structures in research development and dissemination. A better understanding of the science of implementation and impacts of research is essential to maximising the policy and practice related returns of research investment.