Tabak R G, Eyler A A, Dodson E A, Brownson R C
Prevention Research Center in St. Louis, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, 621 Skinker Boulevard, St Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Prevention Research Center in St. Louis, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, 621 Skinker Boulevard, St Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Public Health. 2015 Jun;129(6):698-704. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2015.02.016. Epub 2015 Mar 18.
Improving population health often involves policy changes that are the result of complex advocacy efforts. Information exchanges among researchers, advocates, and policymakers is paramount to policy interventions to improve health outcomes. This information may include evidence on what works well for whom and cost-effective strategies to improve outcomes of interest. However, this information is not always readily available or easily communicated. The purposes of this paper are to describe ways advocates seek information for health policy advocacy and to compare advocate demographics.
Cross-sectional telephone survey.
Seventy-seven state-level advocates were asked about the desirable characteristics of policy-relevant information including methods of obtaining information, what makes it useful, and what sources make evidence most reliable/trustworthy. Responses were explored for the full sample and variety of subsamples (i.e. gender, age, and position on social and fiscal issues). Differences between groups were tested using t-tests and one-way analysis of variance.
On average, advocates rated frequency of seeking research information as 4.3 out of five. Overall, advocates rated the Internet as the top source, rated unbiased research and research with relevancy to their organization as the most important characteristics, and considered information from their organization as most reliable/believable. When ratings were examined by subgroup, the two characteristics most important for each question in the total sample (listed above) emerged as most important for nearly all subgroups.
Advocates are a resource to policymakers on health topics in the policy process. This study, among the first of its kind, found that advocates seek research information, but have a need for evidence that is unbiased and relevant to their organizations and report that university-based information is reliable. Researchers and advocates should partner so research is useful in advocating for evidence-based policy change.
改善人群健康状况通常涉及政策变革，而这些变革是复杂的倡导努力的结果。研究人员、倡导者和政策制定者之间的信息交流对于改善健康结果的政策干预至关重要。此类信息可能包括关于什么对谁有效以及改善相关结果的成本效益策略的证据。然而，这些信息并非总是 readily available 或易于传达。本文的目的是描述倡导者寻求健康政策倡导信息的方式，并比较倡导者的人口统计学特征。
横断面电话调查。
向 77 位州级倡导者询问了与政策相关信息的理想特征，包括获取信息的方法、使其有用的因素以及使证据最可靠/可信赖的来源。对整个样本和各种子样本（即性别、年龄以及在社会和财政问题上的立场）的回答进行了探讨。使用 t 检验和单因素方差分析来检验组间差异。
平均而言，倡导者将寻求研究信息的频率评为 5 分中的 4.3 分。总体而言，倡导者将互联网评为首要信息来源，将无偏见的研究以及与他们组织相关的研究评为最重要的特征，并认为来自他们组织的信息最可靠/可信。当按亚组检查评分时，总样本中每个问题最重要的两个特征（如上所述）几乎对所有亚组而言都是最重要的。
在政策制定过程中，倡导者是政策制定者在健康主题方面的资源。这项同类研究中的首个研究发现，倡导者寻求研究信息，但需要无偏见且与他们组织相关的证据，并报告基于大学的信息是可靠的。研究人员和倡导者应建立合作关系，以便研究对倡导基于证据的政策变革有用。
