Perceptions of the usefulness of public health research in Ghana
Burchett, Helen;
(2010)
Perceptions of the usefulness of public health research in Ghana.
PhD thesis, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.00682424
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This study aimed to explore researchers' and policy stakeholders'
perceptions of the usefulness of public health research for policy, using the
example of maternal health in Ghana. Sixty-nine government decisionmakers,
maternal health policy stakeholders and researchers were
interviewed.
Concepts of research were broad. Research was dichotomised into `big',
formal research and 'small', applied research such as operations research.
'Small research' was highly valued, due to its speedy completion and its
focus on topics pertinent to service delivery; big research was not always
considered necessary.
Effectiveness research, one type of `big research', was not highly valued.
Interviewees tended to feel that 'effective' policies and programmes could
be designed once there was a thorough understanding of the situation.
There was an implicit assumption that as long as these interventions were
implemented well, they would be effective.
Six dimensionso f local applicability/transferabilitwye re identified.T he most
influential factors were the ease with which the intervention could be
implemented, the study's congruence with interviewees' previous
experiences and the perceived need for the intervention. Little attention was
paid to study findings. Judgements of an intervention's potential
effectiveness tended to be based on the ease of implementation or
knowledge of similar projects. Adaptation was considered to be crucial,
although often conceptualised not as a factor within local
applicability/transferability assessments, but rather a distinct, essential step
in the research use process.
This study suggests that the factors of local applicability/transferability
frequently cited in the literature do not reflect those considered to be most
important by stakeholders in Ghana.