Centre for Global Mental Health and Centre for Implementation Science, Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London, David Goldberg Centre, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, PO Box 28, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
Policy Institute At King's, Virginia Woolf Building, The Strand, King's College London, London, UK.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2021 Mar 10;19(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12961-020-00651-4.
Mental health remains a neglected issue on the global health policy agenda, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), and the translation of research evidence into policy and practice is slow. The new EVITA framework was developed to improve mental health evidence uptake and policy agenda-setting in LMICs. In addition, behavioural science methods may be able to support knowledge translation to policy.
Using a mixed-methods study design, we applied and tested the newly developed EVITA 1.1 framework against three case studies related to South Africa at the district, national and international levels. In-depth interviews with 26 experts were conducted between August and November 2019, transcribed, coded and analysed in NVivo, using iterative categorization. The data were analysed against both the EVITA framework and the MINDSPACE framework for behavioural insights.
In our case study comparison, we found that (1) research translation to the policy agenda occurs in a complex, fluid system which includes multiple "research clouds", "policy spheres" and other networks; (2) mental health research policy agenda-setting is based on key individuals and intermediaries and their interrelationships; and (3) key challenges and strategies for successful research to policy agenda impact are known, but are frequently not strategically implemented, such as including all stakeholders to overcome the policy implementation gap. Our data also suggest that behavioural science methods can be strategically applied to support knowledge translation to policy agenda-setting.
We found that the EVITA framework is useful for understanding and improving mental health research policy interrelationships to support evidence uptake to the policy agenda, and that behavioural science methods are effective support mechanisms. The revised EVITA 2.0 framework therefore includes behavioural insights, for improved mental health policy agenda-setting in LMICs. More research is needed to understand whether EVITA can be applied to other LMICs and to high-income contexts.
心理健康仍然是全球卫生政策议程上被忽视的问题，尤其是在中低收入国家（LMIC），将研究证据转化为政策和实践的速度缓慢。新的 EVITA 框架旨在改善 LMIC 中的心理健康证据获取和政策议程制定。此外，行为科学方法可能能够支持知识向政策的转化。
我们采用混合方法研究设计，针对南非的地区、国家和国际三个案例研究，应用和测试了新开发的 EVITA 1.1 框架。2019 年 8 月至 11 月期间，对 26 名专家进行了深入访谈，在 NVivo 中进行了转录、编码和分析，采用迭代分类。根据 EVITA 框架和行为洞察力的 MINDSPACE 框架对数据进行了分析。
在我们的案例研究比较中，我们发现：(1) 研究向政策议程的转化发生在一个复杂、流动的系统中，其中包括多个“研究云”、“政策领域”和其他网络；(2) 心理健康研究政策议程的制定基于关键个人和中介及其相互关系；(3) 成功的研究对政策议程的影响的关键挑战和战略是已知的，但经常没有得到战略性的实施，例如包括所有利益攸关方来克服政策执行差距。我们的数据还表明，行为科学方法可以被战略性地应用于支持知识向政策议程制定的转化。
我们发现 EVITA 框架有助于理解和改善心理健康研究政策的相互关系，以支持证据纳入政策议程，行为科学方法是有效的支持机制。因此，修订后的 EVITA 2.0 框架包括行为洞察力，以改善 LMIC 中的心理健康政策议程制定。需要进一步研究以了解 EVITA 是否可以应用于其他 LMIC 和高收入环境。
