From the College of Health and Human Services, Department of Health Administration and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia (JMLP, JOS, LHG); American Institutes for Research, Arlington, Virginia (CC); American Institutes for Research, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (SG); Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Canada (PC); Department of Physiology, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico (WRF); and Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation, and Sports Medicine, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico (WRF).
Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2022 Aug 1;101(8):775-781. doi: 10.1097/PHM.0000000000002046. Epub 2022 May 18.
The "relevance" of research to stakeholders is an important factor in influencing the uptake of new knowledge into practice; however, this concept is neither well defined nor routinely incorporated in clinical rehabilitation research. Developing a uniform definition, measurement standards, stakeholder engagement strategies, and guiding frameworks that bolster relevance may help incorporate the concept as a key element in research planning and design. This article presents a conceptual argument for why relevance matters, proposes a working definition, and suggests strategies for operationalizing the construct in the context of clinical rehabilitation research. We place special emphasis on the importance of promoting relevance to patients, caregivers, and clinicians and provide preliminary frameworks and innovative study designs that can assist clinical rehabilitation researchers in doing so. We argue that researchers who include a direct statement regarding why and to whom a study is relevant and who incorporate considerations of relevance throughout all phases of study design produce more useful research for patients, caregivers, and clinicians, increasing its chance of uptake into practice. Consistent consideration of relevance, particularly to nonacademic audiences, during the conceptualization, study design, presentation, and dissemination of clinical rehabilitation research may promote the uptake of findings by patients, caregivers, and providers.
研究与利益相关者的“相关性”是影响新知识在实践中应用的一个重要因素；然而，这一概念既没有得到很好的定义，也没有在临床康复研究中得到常规应用。制定统一的定义、测量标准、利益相关者参与策略和指导框架，以增强相关性，可能有助于将相关性作为研究规划和设计的关键要素。本文从概念上提出了相关性为何重要的论点，提出了一个工作定义，并就如何在临床康复研究背景下实施这一概念提出了策略。我们特别强调了促进研究与患者、护理人员和临床医生相关性的重要性，并提供了初步的框架和创新的研究设计，以帮助临床康复研究人员做到这一点。我们认为，研究人员在研究设计的所有阶段都明确说明研究的相关性及其对象，并考虑相关性，会为患者、护理人员和临床医生提供更有用的研究，从而增加其被应用于实践的机会。在临床康复研究的概念化、研究设计、呈现和传播过程中，始终如一地考虑相关性，特别是考虑非学术受众的相关性，可能会促进患者、护理人员和提供者对研究结果的采纳。
