IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v70y2010i10p1492-1500.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Translating evidence into practice: A shared priority in public health?

Author

Listed:
  • McAneney, H.
  • McCann, J.F.
  • Prior, L.
  • Wilde, J.
  • Kee, F.

Abstract

Translational and transdisciplinary research is needed to tackle complex public health problems. This article has three aims. Firstly, to determine how academics and non-academics (practitioners, policy makers and community workers) identified with the goals of the UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health in Northern Ireland and how their attitudes varied in terms of knowledge brokerage and translation. Secondly, to map and analyse the network structure of the public health sector and the placement of the Centre within this. Thirdly, to aggregate responses from members of the network by work setting to construct the trans-sectoral network and devise the Root Mean Sum of Squares to determine the quality and potential value of connections across this network. The analysis was based on data collected from 98 individuals who attended the launch of the Centre in June 2008. Analysis of participant expectations and personal goals suggests that the academic members of the network were more likely to expect the work of the Centre to produce new knowledge than non-academics, but less likely to expect the Centre to generate health interventions and influence health policy. Academics were also less strongly oriented than non-academics to knowledge transfer as a personal goal, though more confident that research findings would be diffused beyond the immediate network. A central core of five nodes is crucial to the overall configuration of the regional public health network in Northern Ireland, with the Centre being well placed to exert influence within this. Though the overall network structure is fairly robust, the connections between some component parts of the network - such as academics and the third sector - are unidirectional. Identifying these differences and core network structure is key to translational and transdisciplinary research. Though exemplified in a regional study, these techniques are generalisable and applicable to many networks of interest: public health, interdisciplinary research or organisational involvement and stakeholder linkage.

Suggested Citation

  • McAneney, H. & McCann, J.F. & Prior, L. & Wilde, J. & Kee, F., 2010. "Translating evidence into practice: A shared priority in public health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1492-1500, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:70:y:2010:i:10:p:1492-1500
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(10)00121-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schwartz, S. & Carpenter, K.M., 1999. "The right answer for the wrong question: Consequences of type III error for public health research," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(8), pages 1175-1180.
    2. Davis, Peter & Howden-Chapman, Philippa, 1996. "Translating research findings into health policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 865-872, September.
    3. Lewis, Jenny M., 2006. "Being around and knowing the players: Networks of influence in health policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2125-2136, May.
    4. Harris, Jenine K. & Luke, Douglas A. & Burke, Ryan C. & Mueller, Nancy B., 2008. "Seeing the forest and the trees: Using network analysis to develop an organizational blueprint of state tobacco control systems," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 1669-1678, December.
    5. Lewis, Jenny M. & Baeza, Juan I. & Alexander, Damon, 2008. "Partnerships in primary care in Australia: Network structure, dynamics and sustainability," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 280-291, July.
    6. West, Elizabeth & Barron, David N. & Dowsett, Juliet & Newton, John N., 1999. "Hierarchies and cliques in the social networks of health care professionals: implications for the design of dissemination strategies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 633-646, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nasreen S. Jessani & Akshara Valmeekanathan & Carly M. Babcock & Brenton Ling, 2020. "Academic incentives for enhancing faculty engagement with decision-makers—considerations and recommendations from one School of Public Health," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dunn, Adam G. & Westbrook, Johanna I., 2011. "Interpreting social network metrics in healthcare organisations: A review and guide to validating small networks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(7), pages 1064-1068, April.
    2. Dalglish, Sarah L. & Rodríguez, Daniela C. & Harouna, Abdoutan & Surkan, Pamela J., 2017. "Knowledge and power in policy-making for child survival in Niger," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 150-157.
    3. Schoen, Martin W. & Moreland-Russell, Sarah & Prewitt, Kim & Carothers, Bobbi J., 2014. "Social network analysis of public health programs to measure partnership," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 90-95.
    4. Sheaff, Rod & Benson, Lawrence & Farbus, Lou & Schofield, Jill & Mannion, Russell & Reeves, David, 2010. "Network resilience in the face of health system reform," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 779-786, March.
    5. Currie, Melissa & King, Gillian & Rosenbaum, Peter & Law, Mary & Kertoy, Marilyn & Specht, Jacqueline, 2005. "A model of impacts of research partnerships in health and social services," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 400-412, November.
    6. Howden-Chapman, Philippa & Viggers, Helen & Chapman, Ralph & O’Sullivan, Kimberley & Telfar Barnard, Lucy & Lloyd, Bob, 2012. "Tackling cold housing and fuel poverty in New Zealand: A review of policies, research, and health impacts," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 134-142.
    7. Townsend, Belinda & Schram, Ashley & Labonté, Ronald & Baum, Fran & Friel, Sharon, 2019. "How do actors with asymmetrical power assert authority in policy agenda-setting? A study of authority claims by health actors in trade policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Aaron Martin & Timothy B Gravelle & Erik Baekkeskov & Jenny Lewis & Yoshi Kashima, 2019. "Enlisting the support of trusted sources to tackle policy problems: The case of antimicrobial resistance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-9, March.
    9. Rohan Dutta & David K Levine & Salvatore Modica, 2018. "Interventions when Social Norms are Endogenous: A Critique," Levine's Bibliography 786969000000001479, UCLA Department of Economics.
    10. Denitsa Marchevska, 2024. "Enlightenment, politicisation or mere window dressing? Europeanisation and the use of evidence for policy making in Bulgaria," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(2), pages 281-303, June.
    11. Isabel Martinez Leal & Jayda Martinez & Maggie Britton & Tzuan A. Chen & Virmarie Correa-Fernández & Bryce Kyburz & Vijay Nitturi & Ezemenari M. Obasi & Kelli Drenner & Teresa Williams & Kathleen Case, 2022. "Collaborative Learning: A Qualitative Study Exploring Factors Contributing to a Successful Tobacco Cessation Train-the-Trainer Program as a Community of Practice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-19, June.
    12. Jane Fedorowicz & Janis L. Gogan, 2010. "Reinvention of interorganizational systems: A case analysis of the diffusion of a bio-terror surveillance system," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 81-95, March.
    13. Aoife De Brún & Eilish McAuliffe, 2018. "Social Network Analysis as a Methodological Approach to Explore Health Systems: A Case Study Exploring Support among Senior Managers/Executives in a Hospital Network," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-11, March.
    14. de Goede, Joyce & Putters, Kim & van Oers, Hans, 2012. "Utilization of epidemiological research for the development of local public health policy in the Netherlands: A case study approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 707-714.
    15. Bauer, Greta R., 2014. "Incorporating intersectionality theory into population health research methodology: Challenges and the potential to advance health equity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 10-17.
    16. Pilar Marqués-Sánchez & María F. Muñoz-Doyague & Yolanda V. Martínez & Martin Everett & Nestor Serrano-Fuentes & Peter Van Bogaert & Ivaylo Vassilev & David Reeves, 2018. "The Importance of External Contacts in Job Performance: A Study in Healthcare Organizations Using Social Network Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Seyedamir Tavakoli Taba & Liaquat Hossain & Robert Heard & Patrick Brennan & Warwick Lee & Sarah Lewis, 2016. "Personal and Network Dynamics in Performance of Knowledge Workers: A Study of Australian Breast Radiologists," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-15, February.
    18. Brennan, David S. & Singh, Kiran A. & Spencer, A. John, 2008. "Health system values and social values of dental practitioners," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(2-3), pages 318-324, May.
    19. Schwartz, Sharon & Meyer, Ilan H., 2010. "Mental health disparities research: The impact of within and between group analyses on tests of social stress hypotheses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(8), pages 1111-1118, April.
    20. Lessard, Chantale & Contandriopoulos, André-Pierre & Beaulieu, Marie-Dominique, 2010. "The role (or not) of economic evaluation at the micro level: Can Bourdieu's theory provide a way forward for clinical decision-making?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 1948-1956, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:70:y:2010:i:10:p:1492-1500. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.