Abstract
BackgroundHealth policymakers in low- and middle-income countries continue to face difficulties in accessing and using research evidence for decision-making. This study aimed to identify and provide a refined categorisation of the policy documents necessary for building the content of a one-stop shop for documents relevant to health policy and systems in Uganda. The on-line resource is to facilitate timely access to well-packaged evidence for decision-making.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review of Uganda-specific, health policy, and systems-relevant documents produced between 2000 and 2014. Our methods borrowed heavily from the 2005 Arksey and O’Malley approach for scoping reviews and involved five steps, which that include identification of the research question; identification of relevant documents; screening and selection of the documents; charting of the data; and collating, summarising and reporting results. We searched for the documents from websites of relevant government institutions, non-governmental organisations, health professional councils and associations, religious medical bureaus and research networks. We presented the review findings as numerical analyses of the volume and nature of documents and trends over time in the form of tables and charts.ResultsWe identified a total of 265 documents including policies, strategies, plans, guidelines, rapid response summaries, evidence briefs for policy, and dialogue reports. The top three clusters of national priority areas addressed in the documents were governance, coordination, monitoring and evaluation (28%); disease prevention, mitigation, and control (23%); and health education, promotion, environmental health and nutrition (15%). The least addressed were curative, palliative care, rehabilitative services and health infrastructure, each addressed in three documents (1%), and early childhood development in one document. The volume of documents increased over the past 15 years; however, the distribution of the different document types over time has not been uniform.ConclusionThe review findings are necessary for mobilising and packaging the local policy-relevant documents in Uganda in a one-stop shop; where policymakers could easily access them to address pressing questions about the health system and interventions. The different types of available documents and the national priority areas covered provide a good basis for building and organising the content in a meaningful way for the resource.
Highlights
Health policymakers in low- and middle-income countries continue to face difficulties in accessing and using research evidence for decision-making
We reviewed published documents relevant for health policy and decision-making about the Uganda health system and interventions produced from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2014
We developed our research questions as: What are the available types of documents relevant for health policy and systems that are specific to Uganda? What is the volume and nature of these documents? From the onset, we were aware that such documents could be available as printed copies, published on websites of relevant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and national institutions or just in the form of soft copies on personal computers that are not yet uploaded on websites
Summary
Health policymakers in low- and middle-income countries continue to face difficulties in accessing and using research evidence for decision-making. The on-line resource is to facilitate timely access to well-packaged evidence for decision-making. Linking health research evidence to action is one of the many important components of national and global responses to contemporary public health challenges [1, 2]. It is important for both making evidence-informed policies and decisions on health services and improving the health systems within which the interventions and services are provided [3]. Research evidence is one of the necessary inputs into policymaking, which may be influenced by context and other factors [8]
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