Damba Florence Upenyu, Mtshali Ntombifikile Gloria, Chimbari Moses John
University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Nursing and Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Howard College, 269 Mazisi Kunene Road, Berea, Durban, 4041, South Africa.
Great Zimbabwe University, P.O. Box 1235, Masvingo, Zimbabwe.
Heliyon. 2024 Aug 31;10(18):e37314. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e37314. eCollection 2024 Sep 30.
Although the barriers and facilitators of translating health research into policy are generally well documented, not much has been reported for universities in low-and middle-income countries. We identified and analyzed barriers and facilitators of translating doctoral research findings into policy in a selected health sciences school in a South African university.
The study adopted a quantitative descriptive research design. We conveniently collected data through an online questionnaire administered to 47 PhD graduates, 11 PhD final year students and 21 PhD supervisors of the School of Nursing and Public Health. Descriptive statistics was performed, and data were summarized using percentages.
More than half (72.4 %) of the students reported not involving Department of Health during formulation of research questions for their projects and 62.1 % reported not directly sharing research findings with the Department of Health. 53.4 % of the students indicated that they attended Department of Health research days and only 39.7 % said they presented research findings at the meetings. Only 39.7 % of the students who shared their research results to the Department of Health received feedback. About 52.4 % of the academic supervisors believed the introduction of the quartile system as a measure of impact of publications may reduce policy impact. An individual PhD supervisor supervises an average of 6 PhD students at any given time. 85.7 % of PhD supervisors reported that they consider stakeholders needs/interests when assisting students to identify research topics.
The study revealed the need for universities to make policymakers aware of available evidence, conduct research that is informed by the Department of Health's research agenda, involve the Department of Health in identifying research projects, and disseminate findings using platforms accessible to policymakers. Other key considerations are political will to utilize evidence, packaging evidence in a user-friendly manner and building the capacity of policymakers to use evidence.
尽管将卫生研究转化为政策的障碍和促进因素通常已有充分记录，但针对低收入和中等收入国家的大学的相关报道却不多。我们确定并分析了南非一所大学选定的健康科学学院将博士研究成果转化为政策的障碍和促进因素。
本研究采用定量描述性研究设计。我们通过在线问卷方便地收集了数据，该问卷面向护理与公共卫生学院的47名博士毕业生、11名博士最后一年学生和21名博士导师。进行了描述性统计，并使用百分比对数据进行了总结。
超过一半（72.4%）的学生报告称，在为其项目制定研究问题时未与卫生部合作，62.1%的学生报告未直接与卫生部分享研究结果。53.4%的学生表示他们参加了卫生部的研究日活动，只有39.7%的学生表示他们在会议上展示了研究结果。向卫生部分享研究结果的学生中，只有39.7%收到了反馈。约52.4%的学术导师认为引入四分位数系统作为衡量出版物影响力的指标可能会降低政策影响力。在任何给定时间，一名博士导师平均指导6名博士生。85.7%的博士导师报告称，他们在协助学生确定研究课题时会考虑利益相关者的需求/利益。
该研究表明，大学需要让政策制定者了解现有证据，开展以卫生部研究议程为依据的研究，让卫生部参与确定研究项目，并利用政策制定者可获取的平台传播研究结果。其他关键考虑因素包括利用证据的政治意愿、以用户友好的方式包装证据以及培养政策制定者使用证据的能力。
