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Increasing the capacity of policy agencies to use research findings : a stepped-wedge trial

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Williamson_2019_HRPS_Policyagencies_CC.pdf (1.252Mb)
Date
06/02/2019
Author
Williamson, Anna
Barker, Daniel
Green, Sally
D'Este, Catherine
Davies, Huw T. O.
Jorm, Louise
Shakeshaft, Anthony
Rudge, Sian
Redman, Sally
Keywords
Policy
Evidence
Knowledge translation
Knowledge mobilisation
Intervention
HD28 Management. Industrial Management
RA Public aspects of medicine
NDAS
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Abstract
Background:  This paper describes the trial of a novel intervention, Supporting Policy In health with evidence from Research: an Intervention Trial (SPIRIT). It examines (1) the feasibility of delivering this kind of programme in practice; (2) its acceptability to participants; (3) the impact of the programme on the capacity of policy agencies to engage with research; and (4) the engagement with and use of research by policy agencies. Methods:  SPIRIT was a multifaceted, highly tailored, stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised, trial involving six health policy agencies in Sydney, Australia. Agencies were randomly allocated to one of three start dates to receive the 1-year intervention programme. SPIRIT included audit, feedback and goal setting; a leadership programme; staff training; the opportunity to test systems to facilitate research use in policies; and exchange with researchers. Outcome measures were collected at each agency every 6 months for 30 months. Results:  Participation in SPIRIT was associated with significant increases in research use capacity at staff and agency levels. Staff reported increased confidence in research use skills, and agency leaders reported more extensive systems and structures in place to support research use. Self-report data suggested there was also an increase in tactical research use among agency staff. Given the relatively small numbers of participating agencies and the complexity of their contexts, findings suggest it is possible to effect change in the way policy agencies approach the use of research. This is supported by the responses on the other trial measures; while these were not statistically significant, on 18 of the 20 different measures used, the changes observed were consistent with the hypothesised intervention effect (that is, positive impacts). Conclusions:  As an early test of an innovative approach, SPIRIT has demonstrated that it is possible to increase research engagement and use in policy agencies. While more work is needed to establish the replicability and generalisability of these findings, this trial suggests that building staff skills and organisational structures may be effective in increasing evidence use.
Citation
Williamson , A , Barker , D , Green , S , D'Este , C , Davies , H T O , Jorm , L , Shakeshaft , A , Rudge , S & Redman , S 2019 , ' Increasing the capacity of policy agencies to use research findings : a stepped-wedge trial ' , Health Research Policy and Systems , vol. 17 , 14 . https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-018-0408-8
Publication
Health Research Policy and Systems
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-018-0408-8
ISSN
1478-4505
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Description
SPIRIT was funded as part of the Centre for Informing Policy in Health with Evidence from Research (CIPHER), an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre for Research Excellence (APP1001436), which is administered by the Sax Institute. CIPHER is a joint project of the Sax Institute; Australasian Cochrane Centre, Monash University; University of Newcastle; University of New South Wales; Research Unit for Research Utilisation, University of St Andrews; Australian National University; and University of South Australia.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/17019

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