Closing the chasm between research and practice: evidence of and for change

Abstract

The usual remedy suggested for bridging the science-to-practice gap is to improve the efficiency of disseminating the evidencebased practices to practitioners. This reflection on the gap takes the position that it is the relevance and fit of the evidence with the majority of practices that limit its applicability and application in health promotion and related behavioural, community and population-level interventions where variations in context, values and norms make uniform interventions inappropriate. To make the evidence more relevant and actionable to practice settings and populations will require reforms at many points in the research-to-practice pipeline. These points in the pipeline are described and remedies for them suggested.

Making nutrition guidelines fit for purpose

“…For public health guidelines examining broad questions for which the evidence comes from observational data, new ways of rating the evidence need to be considered that acknowledge factors such as generalisability and relevance for translation into practice 4950. This means that observational studies might start out with a higher rating if they are the best fit for answering a question within the logic model.…”

Mind the Gap: Approaches to Addressing the Research-to-Practice, Practice-to-Research Chasm

“…4,8,43,44 Often these discussions are an implicit request for more relevant research or evaluation conducted in practice settings primarily by researchers in partnership with practitioners or communities. While this approach helps ensure that research addresses timely and relevant practice and community concerns, it continues to reify the notion of distinct knowledge and practice domains.…”

“…There is emerging recognition in the field of public health for the value of this more comprehensive consideration of evidence, but much work remains to be done to expand beyond a focus solely on more traditional research approaches and forms of evidence in public health to include more practice-based evidence and knowledge in prevention approaches. 1–4,8 Also, expanding scholar-practitioner and AR approaches in public health will require new training and skill development within the public health workforce. This, in turn, requires schools and faculty that both value and are prepared to teach and support students in these approaches.…”

“…3 There has also been concern around the “practice-to-research gap” or the relevance of research to the needs of decision makers and community stakeholders. 4,5 To address this concern, there have been continuous calls for knowledge to flow from practice to the academic domain to inform more relevant research and transferrable science and ensure that important practice-based knowledge is included as evidence (or “what is known”), is valued, and disseminated. 4,6,7 …”

“…4,8,9 An entire field of translation science (which includes dissemination and implementation sciences) has developed around addressing the research-to-practice gap, 9,15 and, to a far less extent, the practice-to-research gap. 8,16 Yet, these gaps persist and continue to pose an intractable, and multifaceted problem to the field of injury and violence prevention, with real-world implications in the lives of families and communities.…”