Brand Kaitlin, Flores-Thorpe Shelby, Zhang Yuzi, Roebuck Amelia, Menendez Tiffni, Linton Rachel, Bishop Scott Taylor, Crowley Max, van den Berg Alexandra E, Hoelscher Deanna M
Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living and UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, USA.
The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Evid Policy. 2025 May 26:1-16. doi: 10.1332/17442648Y2025D000000054.
This study aimed to evaluate public health researchers' perceptions of policy-informed research, self-efficacy, knowledge and training needs both before and after participating in an initiative to improve their engagement with legislative offices during the January-May 2021 Texas Legislative Session.
A total of 111 researchers were contacted about participating in the initiative, and 45 expressed interest and were thus enrolled. After receiving training on communication skills specific to legislative audiences, 27 researchers were matched with participating legislative offices based on location, availability and expertise. Self-administered surveys assessed policy informed research, self-efficacy, knowledge and training needs pre- and post-session. Paired t-tests compared pre- and post-session mean scale scores. Two-sample t-tests compared scale scores between matched and unmatched researchers.
Most researchers (66 per cent) communicated with legislative offices fewer than five times during the previous two years. Compared to pre-session (baseline), there was a significant increase in reported policy knowledge and a significant decrease in perceived training needs in the post-session (follow-up) survey among all researchers. At baseline, legislator-matched researchers had significantly higher policy-related self-efficacy and lower perceived training needs than the unmatched researchers; however, scores between matched and unmatched researchers were not significantly different at follow-up.
Our findings show that actively applying learned skills through the research-to-policy framework is beneficial in building researchers' policy-related knowledge and their preparedness to engage with state legislators. The resulting potential for researcher-legislator partnerships to transform our public health system is highlighted.
本研究旨在评估公共卫生研究人员在参与一项旨在改善他们在2021年1月至5月德克萨斯州立法会议期间与立法办公室互动的倡议前后，对政策导向研究、自我效能、知识和培训需求的看法。
共联系了111名研究人员参与该倡议，45人表示有兴趣并因此入选。在接受了针对立法受众的沟通技巧培训后，27名研究人员根据地点、可用性和专业知识与参与的立法办公室进行了匹配。自行管理的调查评估了会议前后的政策导向研究、自我效能、知识和培训需求。配对t检验比较了会议前后的平均量表得分。两样本t检验比较了匹配和未匹配研究人员之间的量表得分。
大多数研究人员（66%）在过去两年中与立法办公室沟通的次数少于五次。与会议前（基线）相比，在会议后（随访）调查中，所有研究人员报告的政策知识显著增加，感知培训需求显著下降。在基线时，与立法者匹配的研究人员在政策相关的自我效能方面显著高于未匹配的研究人员，且感知培训需求较低；然而，在随访时，匹配和未匹配研究人员之间的得分没有显著差异。
我们的研究结果表明，通过研究到政策框架积极应用所学技能有助于建立研究人员的政策相关知识以及他们与州立法者互动的准备程度。研究人员与立法者伙伴关系对转变我们的公共卫生系统的潜在作用得到了凸显。
