Abstract
BackgroundThe Pacific TROPIC (Translational Research for Obesity Prevention in Communities) project aimed to design, implement and evaluate a knowledge-broking approach to evidence-informed policy making to address obesity in Fiji. This paper reports on the quantitative evaluation of the knowledge-broking intervention through assessment of participants’ perceptions of evidence use and development of policy/advocacy briefs.MethodsSelected staff from six organizations - four government Ministries and two nongovernment organizations (NGOs) - participated in the project. The intervention comprised workshops and supported development of policy/advocacy briefs. Workshops addressed obesity and policy cycles and developing participants’ skills in accessing, assessing, adapting and applying relevant evidence. A knowledge-broking team supported participants individually and/or in small groups to develop evidence-informed policy/advocacy briefs. A questionnaire survey that included workplace and demographic items and the self-assessment tool “Is Research Working for You?” (IRWFY) was administered pre- and post-intervention.ResultsForty nine individuals (55% female, 69% 21–40 years, 69% middle-senior managers) participated in the study. The duration and level of participant engagement with the intervention activities varied – just over half participated for 10+ months, just under half attended most workshops and approximately one third produced one or more policy briefs. There were few reliable changes on the IRWFY scales following the intervention; while positive changes were found on several scales, these effects were small (d < .2) and only one individual scale (assess) was statistically significant (p < .05). Follow up (N = 1) analyses of individual-level change indicated that while 63% of participants reported increased research utilization post-intervention, this proportion was not different to chance levels. Similar analysis using scores aggregated by organization also revealed no organizational-level change post-intervention.ConclusionsThis study empirically evaluated a knowledge-broking program that aimed to extend evidence-informed policy making skills and development of a suite of national policy briefs designed to increase the enactment of obesity-related policies. The findings failed to indicate reliable improvements in research utilization at either the individual or organizational level. Factors associated with fidelity and intervention dose as well as challenges related to organizational support and the measurement of research utilization, are discussed and recommendations for future research presented.
Highlights
The Pacific TROPIC (Translational Research for Obesity Prevention in Communities) project aimed to design, implement and evaluate a knowledge-broking approach to evidence-informed policy making to address obesity in Fiji
This study reports on the evaluation of the impact of a 3-year knowledge exchange project called Translational Research for Obesity Prevention in Communities (TROPIC) [4]
Eight government and two Nongovernmental organization (NGO) were identified as potential participant-organizations based on: their potential to make or influence policies that improve food and/ or physical activity environments; wide demographic representation to ensure a broad reach; capacity to release and support staff to participate in TROPIC activities; potential to share evidence-informed policy making knowledge and skills within their own and other organizations; and previous relationships with the research team [4, 5, 14]
Summary
The Pacific TROPIC (Translational Research for Obesity Prevention in Communities) project aimed to design, implement and evaluate a knowledge-broking approach to evidence-informed policy making to address obesity in Fiji. Integrating relevant research evidence into appropriate and effective public policy is challenging, given that researchers and policymakers frequently have different agendas, timelines and priorities that constrain the use of evidence to inform policies [3]. Effective exchange of knowledge between evidence-producers (researchers and others) and end-users (those who initiate, select, approve, implement and evaluate policy) is critical to evidence-based policy development [3]. Effective knowledge exchange is determined by: 1) researchers producing timely and relevant evidence; 2) policy-makers communicating their priorities and timelines; and 3) policy-makers having the skills and resources to utilize evidence to inform policies [4]. It is important that advocacy documents are informed by relevant evidence, given the potential for advocates to influence policy [7]
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