Weissman Amy, Nguyen Tuan T, Nguyen Hoa T, Mathisen Roger
FHI 360, Asia Pacific Regional Office, Bangkok, Thailand.
Alive & Thrive Southeast Asia, FHI 360, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Curr Dev Nutr. 2020 May 22;4(6):nzaa093. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzaa093. eCollection 2020 Jun.
Opinion leader research (OLR) has been widely used in public health to identify influential persons or organizations to affect health care practice, inform policy-making processes, and help shape communication strategies. We used OLR to gather information related to barriers and possible solutions to guide strategic engagement for strengthening policy making for improved maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN) practices in 5 Southeast Asian countries-Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and Thailand. In most countries, MIYCN policies and policymaker interest exist, but effective implementation and/or enforcement of current policies is weak. This article aims to share our experience in and lessons learned from using OLR as an advocacy tool: It helped identify opinion leaders with interest and influence to affect nutrition-related policies, it raised opinion leaders' interest in MIYCN, and it identified themes that would help generate political priority setting. Based on our experience, we recommend OLR as a strategic activity for informing and generating support for MIYCN policy-making processes.
意见领袖研究（OLR）已在公共卫生领域广泛应用，以识别有影响力的个人或组织，从而影响医疗保健实践、为政策制定过程提供信息，并助力制定沟通策略。我们运用意见领袖研究来收集与障碍及可能的解决方案相关的信息，以指导战略参与，加强柬埔寨、老挝、印度尼西亚、东帝汶和泰国这5个东南亚国家改善孕产妇、婴儿和幼儿营养（MIYCN）实践的政策制定。在大多数国家，存在孕产妇、婴儿和幼儿营养政策以及政策制定者的兴趣，但当前政策的有效实施和/或执行力度薄弱。本文旨在分享我们将意见领袖研究用作倡导工具的经验和教训：它有助于识别对营养相关政策有兴趣和影响力的意见领袖，提高意见领袖对孕产妇、婴儿和幼儿营养的兴趣，并确定有助于确立政治优先事项的主题。基于我们的经验，我们建议将意见领袖研究作为一项战略活动，为孕产妇、婴儿和幼儿营养政策制定过程提供信息并争取支持。
