National strategies for knowledge translation in health policy-making: A scoping review of grey literature.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Without strategic actions in its support, the translation of scientific research evidence into health policy is often absent or delayed. This review systematically maps and assesses national-level strategic documents in the field of knowledge translation (KT) for health policy, and develops a practical template that can support Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Europe countries in producing national strategies for evidence-informed policy-making. METHODS: Websites of organizations with strategic responsibilities in KT were electronically searched, on the basis of pre-defined criteria, in July-August 2017, and an updated search was carried out in April-June 2021. We included national strategies or elements of national strategies that dealt with KT activities, as well as similar strategies of individual institutions with a national policy focus. Two reviewers screened the strategies for inclusion. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: A total of 65 unique documents were identified, of which 17 were eligible and analysed for their structure and content. Of the 17, 1 document was a national health KT action plan and 6 documents were institution-level KT strategies. The remaining 10 strategies, which were also included were 2 national health strategies, 5 national health research strategies and 3 national KT strategies (not specific to the field of health alone). In all, 13 structural elements and 7 major themes of health policy KT strategies were identified from the included documents. CONCLUSION: KT in health policy, as emerged from the national strategies that our mapping identified, is based on the production and accessibility of policy-relevant research, its packaging for policy-making and the activities related to knowledge exchange. KT strategies may play different roles in the complex and context-specific process of policy-making. Our findings show that the main ideas of health-specific evidence-informed policy literature appear in these strategies, but their effectiveness depends on the way stakeholders use them. Specific knowledge-brokering institutions and organizational capacity, advocacy about the use of evidence, and close collaboration and co-decision-making with key stakeholders are essential in furthering the policy uptake of research results.

Sex, drugs and techno - a qualitative study on finding the balance between risk, safety and pleasure among men who have sex with men engaging in recreational and sexualised drug use.

BACKGROUND: Recreational and sexual drug use among men who have sex with men may result in increased risk of poor health. The aim of this study was to better understand drug use and harm reduction techniques among Swedish men who have sex with men traveling to Berlin in order to improve the health of this population and inform public health strategies. METHODS: A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with 15 Swedish men aged 23-44 with experience of drug use were recruited through network sampling. Interviews were conducted in Stockholm and Berlin and analysed using content analysis. The interview guide included questions on drug use, context, health and safety. RESULTS: The participants engaged in drug use in both settings and in various contexts. Participants saw themselves as capable of finding a balance between pleasure, safety and risk with the aim to maximize positive effects while minimizing negative ones. The different risks of drug use were known, and participants relied on knowledge, harm reduction strategies and self-defined rules of intake to stay safe and healthy in a broad sense, both short term (i.e. during each session) and long term. Choice of drug and, frequency of intake, multi-use, risk of overdose, risk of HIV, purpose and context of use, how often, etc. were all part of the overall strategy. Knowledge of these methods was spread within the community and on-line rather than from counsellors or other health care providers. However, it did not always translate perfectly into practice and some had experienced overdoses and problematic use. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study point to the need for increased adoption of harm reduction techniques in this population focusing on mitigating harm and prevention of risk of problematic use or starting injection drugs. Existing traditional services require adaptations to become more accessible and acceptable to sub-groups of drug users, including low-threshold services providing non-judgemental, evidence-based information. This will require funding of alternative providers such as STI/HIV clinics, among others, and health care providers to increase adoption of prevention strategies, specifically pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV.

Indicators to evaluate organisational knowledge brokers: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge translation (KT) is currently endorsed by global health policy actors as a means to improve outcomes by institutionalising evidence-informed policy-making. Organisational knowledge brokers, comprised of researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders, are increasingly being used to undertake and promote KT at all levels of health policy-making, though few resources exist to guide the evaluation of these efforts. Using a scoping review methodology, we identified, synthesised and assessed indicators that have been used to evaluate KT infrastructure and capacity-building activities in a health policy context in order to inform the evaluation of organisational knowledge brokers. METHODS: A scoping review methodology was used. This included the search of Medline, Global Health and the WHO Library databases for studies regarding the evaluation of KT infrastructure and capacity-building activities between health research and policy, published in English from 2005 to 2016. Data on study characteristics, outputs and outcomes measured, related indicators, mode of verification, duration and/or frequency of collection, indicator methods, KT model, and targeted capacity level were extracted and charted for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 1073 unique articles were obtained and 176 articles were qualified to be screened in full-text; 32 articles were included in the analysis. Of a total 213 indicators extracted, we identified 174 (174/213; 81.7%) indicators to evaluate the KT infrastructure and capacity-building that have been developed using methods beyond expert opinion. Four validated instruments were identified. The 174 indicators are presented in 8 domains based on an adaptation of the domains of the Lavis et al. framework of linking research to action - general climate, production of research, push efforts, pull efforts, exchange efforts, integrated efforts, evaluation and capacity-building. CONCLUSION: This review presents a total of 174 method-based indicators to evaluate KT infrastructure and capacity-building. The presented indicators can be used or adapted globally by organisational knowledge brokers and other stakeholders in their monitoring and evaluation work.