Evidence-informed public health policy

Abstract

Pressure to base government actions or policy on research evidence has been growing since at least the 1960s when social programs in the United States were subject to rigorous evaluation and more recently in terms of evidence-based medicine. This chapter reviews how evidence is used to inform public health policy demonstrating that evidence from sources other than research is relevant and that evidence of any kind is only one type of consideration when policy is formulated. Methodological developments such as realist reviews techniques take into account the complexity of real-life policy interventions and promote the use of a variety of measures of intervention success from a spectrum of disciplines. However, the translation of research into policy content and practice remains a challenge for researchers and decision makers alike. In addition to structural and cultural barriers to greater systematic cooperation between academia and policy-making institutions, the political considerations are vital as without political will policy will not see the light of day. Public health advocates within and outside government face competing priorities and political considerations. But the generation and appraisal of policy-relevant evidence also operates on different timelines to political processes., Increasingly, research and policy making are opening up the process of constructing evidence-informed public health policy to include participative approaches which position stakeholder and community views as integral to the policy process. Understanding of public health policy making and how evidence is used in these processes will benefit from the application of political science theories which are outlined in this chapter.