Bridging the gaps among research, policy and practice in ten low- and middle-income countries: Development and testing of a questionnaire for researchers

doi:10.1186/1478-4505-8-4

Health Research Policy and Systems

Volume 8

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Cameron D
Lavis JN
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Akhtar T
Becerra Posada F
Ndossi GD
Boupha B

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Research

Bridging the gaps among research, policy and practice in ten low- and middle-income countries: Development and testing of a questionnaire for researchers

David Cameron¹^,2 , John N Lavis¹^,3^,4^,5 , G Emmanuel Guindon¹^,4 , Tasleem Akhtar⁶ , Francisco Becerra Posada⁷ , Godwin D Ndossi⁸ , Boungnong Boupha⁹^,10 and Research to Policy and Practice Study Team

¹Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

²Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

³McMaster Health Forum, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

⁴Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

⁵Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

⁶Pakistan Medical Research Council at Khyber Medical College, Pakistan

⁷Council on Health Research for Development, Mexico City, Mexico

⁸Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

⁹National Institute of Public Health, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic

¹⁰Council of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Health, Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic

author email corresponding author email

Health Research Policy and Systems 2010, 8:4doi:10.1186/1478-4505-8-4


Published:	29 January 2010

Abstract

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.