Research
Bridging the gaps among research, policy and practice in ten low- and middle-income countries: Development and testing of a questionnaire for researchers
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* Corresponding author: Boungnong Boupha boungnong.boupha@gmail.com
1 Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
2 Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
3 McMaster Health Forum, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
4 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
5 Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
6 Pakistan Medical Research Council at Khyber Medical College, Pakistan
7 Council on Health Research for Development, Mexico City, Mexico
8 Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
9 National Institute of Public Health, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic
10 Council of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Health, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic
Health Research Policy and Systems 2010, 8:4 doi:10.1186/1478-4505-8-4
Published: 29 January 2010Abstract
Background
A questionnaire could assist researchers, policymakers, and healthcare providers to describe and monitor changes in efforts to bridge the gaps among research, policy and practice. No questionnaire focused on researchers' engagement in bridging activities related to high-priority topics (or the potential correlates of their engagement) has been developed and tested in a range of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Methods
Country teams from ten LMICs (China, Ghana, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mexico, Pakistan, Senegal, and Tanzania) participated in the development and testing of a questionnaire. To assess reliability we calculated the internal consistency of items within each of the ten conceptual domains related to bridging activities (specifically Cronbach's alpha). To assess face and content validity we convened several teleconferences and a workshop. To assess construct validity we calculated the correlation between scales and counts (i.e., criterion measures) for the three countries that employed both and we calculated the correlation between different but theoretically related (i.e., convergent) measures for all countries.
Results
Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for sets of related items was very high, ranging from 0.89 (0.86-0.91) to 0.96 (0.95-0.97), suggesting some item redundancy. Both face and content validity were determined to be high. Assessments of construct validity using criterion-related measures showed statistically significant associations for related measures (with gammas ranging from 0.36 to 0.73). Assessments using convergent measures also showed significant associations (with gammas ranging from 0.30 to 0.50).
Conclusions
While no direct comparison can be made to a comparable questionnaire, our findings do suggest a number of strengths of the questionnaire but also the need to reduce item redundancy and to test its capacity to monitor changes over time.