University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.
Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3C5, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Mar 13;18(1):351. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5229-8.
Despite the potential population-level impact of a health-promoting schools approach, schools face challenges in implementation, indicating a gap between school health research and practice. Knowledge exchange provides an opportunity to reduce this gap; however, there has been limited evaluation of these initiatives. This research explored researchers' and knowledge users' perceptions of outcomes associated with a knowledge exchange initiative within COMPASS, a longitudinal study of Canadian secondary students and schools. Schools received annual tailored summaries of their students' health behaviours and suggestions for action and were linked with knowledge brokers to support them in taking action to improve student health.
Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with COMPASS researchers (n = 13), school staff (n = 13), and public health stakeholders (n = 4) to explore their experiences with COMPASS knowledge exchange. Key issues included how knowledge users used school-specific findings, perceived outcomes of knowledge exchange, and suggestions for change.
Outcomes for both knowledge users and researchers were identified; interestingly, knowledge users attributed more outcomes to using school-specific findings than knowledge brokering. School and public health participants indicated school-specific findings informed their programming and planning. Importantly, knowledge exchange provided a platform for partnerships between researchers, schools, and public health units. Knowledge brokering allowed researchers to gain feedback from knowledge users to enhance the study and a better understanding of the school environment. Interestingly, COMPASS knowledge exchange outcomes aligned with Samdal and Rowling's eight theory-driven implementation components for health-promoting schools. Hence, knowledge exchange may provide a mechanism to help schools implement a health-promoting schools approach.
This research contributes to the limited literature regarding outcomes of knowledge brokering in public health and knowledge exchange in school health research. However, since not all schools engaged in knowledge brokering, and not all schools that engaged discussed these outcomes, further research is needed to determine the amount of engagement required for change and examine the process of COMPASS knowledge brokering to consider how to increase school engagement.
尽管促进学校健康的方法具有潜在的人群影响，但学校在实施过程中面临挑战，这表明学校健康研究与实践之间存在差距。知识交流提供了缩小这一差距的机会；然而，对这些举措的评价有限。本研究探讨了研究人员和知识使用者对 COMPASS 内知识交流举措相关结果的看法，该研究是对加拿大中学生和学校的一项纵向研究。学校每年都会收到学生健康行为的个性化总结以及行动建议，并与知识经纪人联系，以支持他们采取行动改善学生健康。
对 COMPASS 研究人员（n=13）、学校工作人员（n=13）和公共卫生利益相关者（n=4）进行了定性半结构式访谈，以探讨他们对 COMPASS 知识交流的经验。主要问题包括知识使用者如何使用特定学校的发现、对知识交流结果的看法以及变革建议。
确定了知识使用者和研究人员的结果；有趣的是，知识使用者归因于使用特定学校的发现比知识经纪人更多的结果。学校和公共卫生参与者表示，特定学校的发现为他们的规划和计划提供了信息。重要的是，知识交流为研究人员、学校和公共卫生单位之间建立伙伴关系提供了平台。知识经纪人使研究人员能够从知识使用者那里获得反馈，以改进研究并更好地了解学校环境。有趣的是，COMPASS 知识交流的结果与 Samdal 和 Rowling 的八项理论驱动的促进学校健康的实施要素一致。因此，知识交流可能提供了一种帮助学校实施促进学校健康的方法的机制。
本研究有助于补充关于公共卫生知识经纪人以及学校健康研究知识交流成果的有限文献。然而，由于并非所有学校都参与了知识经纪人，并且并非所有参与的学校都讨论了这些结果，因此需要进一步研究以确定实现变革所需的参与程度，并研究 COMPASS 知识经纪人的过程，以考虑如何增加学校参与度。
