Dataset Information

What research tells us about knowledge transfer strategies to improve public health in low-income countries: a scoping review.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

This study describes the current state of research on knowledge transfer strategies to improve public health in low-income countries, to identify the knowledge gaps on this topic.

Methods

In this scoping review, a descriptive and systematic process was used to analyse, for each article retained, descriptions of research context and methods, types of knowledge transfer activities and results reported.

Results

28 articles were analysed. They dealt with the evaluation of transfer strategies that employed multiple activities, mostly targeting health professionals and women with very young children. Most often these studies used quantitative designs and measurements of instrumental use with some methodological shortcomings. Results were positive and suggested recommendations for improving professional practices, knowledge and health-related behaviours. The review highlights the great diversity of transfer strategies used, strategies and many conditions for knowledge use.

Conclusions

The review provides specific elements for understanding the transfer processes in low-income countries and highlights the need for systematic evaluation of the conditions for research results utilization.

SUBMITTER: Siron S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4636521 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

What research tells us about knowledge transfer strategies to improve public health in low-income countries: a scoping review.

Siron Stéphanie S Dagenais Christian C Ridde Valéry V

International journal of public health 20150823 7

<h4>Objectives</h4>This study describes the current state of research on knowledge transfer strategies to improve public health in low-income countries, to identify the knowledge gaps on this topic.<h4>Methods</h4>In this scoping review, a descriptive and systematic process was used to analyse, for each article retained, descriptions of research context and methods, types of knowledge transfer activities and results reported.<h4>Results</h4>28 articles were analysed. They dealt with the evaluati ...[more]

PMID: 26298445

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Project description:IntroductionAs the number of people living in cities increases worldwide, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), urban health is a growing priority of public and global health. Rapid unplanned urbanisation in LMICs has exacerbated inequalities, putting the urban poor at increased risk of ill health due to difficult living conditions in cities. Collaboration with communities in research is a key strategy for addressing the challenges they face. The objective of this scoping review is, therefore, to identify factors that influence the participation of urban communities from LMICs in public and global health research.Methods and analysisWe will develop a search strategy with a health librarian to explore the following databases: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane, Global Health and CINAHL. We will use MeSH terms and keywords exploring the concepts of 'low-income and middle-income countries', 'community participation in research' and 'urban settings' to look at empirical research conducted in English or French. There will be no restriction in terms of dates of publication. Two independent reviewers will screen and select studies, first based on titles and abstracts, and then on full text. Two reviewers will extract data. We will summarise the results using tables and fuzzy cognitive mapping.Ethics and disseminationThis scoping review is part of a larger project to be approved by the University of Montréal's Research Ethics Committee for Science and Health in Montréal (Canada), and the Institutional Review Board of the James P Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka (Bangladesh). Results from the review will contribute to a participatory process seeking to combine scientific evidence with experiential knowledge of stakeholders in Dhaka to understand how to better collaborate with communities for research. The review could contribute to a shift toward research that is more inclusive and beneficial for communities.

Project description:BackgroundIdentifying determinants of health and understanding their role in health production constitutes an important research theme. We aimed to document the state of recent multi-country research on this theme in the literature.MethodsWe followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines to systematically identify, triage and review literature (January 2013-July 2019). We searched for studies that performed cross-national statistical analyses aiming to evaluate the impact of one or more aggregate level determinants on one or more general population health outcomes in high-income countries. To assess in which combinations and to what extent individual (or thematically linked) determinants had been studied together, we performed multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis.ResultsSixty studies were selected, out of an original yield of 3686. Life-expectancy and overall mortality were the most widely used population health indicators, while determinants came from the areas of healthcare, culture, politics, socio-economics, environment, labor, fertility, demographics, life-style, and psychology. The family of regression models was the predominant statistical approach. Results from our multidimensional scaling showed that a relatively tight core of determinants have received much attention, as main covariates of interest or controls, whereas the majority of other determinants were studied in very limited contexts. We consider findings from these studies regarding the importance of any given health determinant inconclusive at present. Across a multitude of model specifications, different country samples, and varying time periods, effects fluctuated between statistically significant and not significant, and between beneficial and detrimental to health.ConclusionsWe conclude that efforts to understand the underlying mechanisms of population health are far from settled, and the present state of research on the topic leaves much to be desired. It is essential that future research considers multiple factors simultaneously and takes advantage of more sophisticated methodology with regards to quantifying health as well as analyzing determinants' influence.

Project description:BackgroundThe last 3 years have witnessed global health challenges, ranging from the pandemics of COVID-19 and mpox (monkeypox) to the Ebola epidemic in Uganda. Public health surveillance is critical for preventing these outbreaks, yet surveillance systems in resource-constrained contexts struggle to provide timely disease reporting. Although community health workers (CHWs) support health systems in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), very little has been written about their role in supporting public health surveillance. This review identified the roles, impacts and challenges CHWs face in public health surveillance in 25 LMICs.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review guided by Arksey and O'Malley's framework. We exported 1,156 peer-reviewed records from Embase, Global Health and PubMed databases. After multiple screenings, 29 articles were included in the final review.ResultsCHWs significantly contribute to public health surveillance in LMICs including through contact tracing and patient visitation to control major infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, Ebola, neglected tropical diseases and COVID-19. Their public health surveillance roles typically fall into four main categories including community engagement; data gathering; screening, testing and treating; and health education and promotion. The use of CHWs in public health surveillance in LMICs has been impactful and often involves incorporation of various technologies leading to improved epidemic control and disease reporting. Nonetheless, use of CHWs can come with four main challenges including lack of education and training, lack of financial and other resources, logistical and infrastructural challenges as well as community engagement challenges.ConclusionCHWs are important stakeholders in surveillance because they are closer to communities than other healthcare workers. Further integration and training of CHWs in public health surveillance would improve public health surveillance because CHWs can provide health data on 'hard-to-reach' populations. CHWs' work in public health surveillance would also be greatly enhanced by infrastructural investments.

Project description:BackgroundInadequate health-care provider performance is a major challenge to the delivery of high-quality health care in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Health Care Provider Performance Review (HCPPR) is a comprehensive systematic review of strategies to improve health-care provider performance in LMICs.MethodsFor this systematic review we searched 52 electronic databases for published studies and 58 document inventories for unpublished studies from the 1960s to 2016. Eligible study designs were controlled trials and interrupted time series. We only included strategy-versus-control group comparisons. We present results of improving health-care provider practice outcomes expressed as percentages (eg, percentage of patients treated correctly) or as continuous measures (eg, number of medicines prescribed per patient). Effect sizes were calculated as absolute percentage-point changes. The summary measure for each comparison was the median effect size (MES) for all primary outcomes. Strategy effectiveness was described with weighted medians of MES. This study is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016046154.FindingsWe screened 216 477 citations and selected 670 reports from 337 studies of 118 strategies. Most strategies had multiple intervention components. For professional health-care providers (generally, facility-based health workers), the effects were near zero for only implementing a technology-based strategy (median MES 1·0 percentage points, IQR -2·8 to 9·9) or only providing printed information for health-care providers (1·4 percentage points, -4·8 to 6·2). For percentage outcomes, training or supervision alone typically had moderate effects (10·3-15·9 percentage points), whereas combining training and supervision had somewhat larger effects than use of either strategy alone (18·0-18·8 percentage points). Group problem solving alone showed large improvements in percentage outcomes (28·0-37·5 percentage points), but, when the strategy definition was broadened to include group problem solving alone or other strategy components, moderate effects were more typical (12·1 percentage points). Several multifaceted strategies had large effects, but multifaceted strategies were not always more effective than simpler ones. For lay health-care providers (generally, community health workers), the effect of training alone was small (2·4 percentage points). Strategies with larger effect sizes included community support plus health-care provider training (8·2-125·0 percentage points). Contextual and methodological heterogeneity made comparisons difficult, and most strategies had low quality evidence.InterpretationThe impact of strategies to improve health-care provider practices varied substantially, although some approaches were more consistently effective than others. The breadth of the HCPPR makes its results valuable to decision makers for informing the selection of strategies to improve health-care provider practices in LMICs. These results also emphasise the need for researchers to use better methods to study the effectiveness of interventions.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CDC Foundation.

Dataset Information

What research tells us about knowledge transfer strategies to improve public health in low-income countries: a scoping review.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

What research tells us about knowledge transfer strategies to improve public health in low-income countries: a scoping review.

Similar Datasets

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