Bringing science to policy: The use of research by public health advocacy organizations to advance policy solutions

Evidence-based health policymaking helps to ensure the best possible return on our nation's public health investment (Urban Institute, 2003). Advocacy organizations are important participants in the policy process (Adam & Kriesi, 2007). Thus, research utilization by advocacy organizations is a critical pathway by which research can inform the policy process. This study explores the ways in which public health advocacy organizations use research to advance policy solutions. It also examines the informational, organizational, and external factors that influence research utilization by public health advocacy organizations.;The phenomenon of research utilization by advocacy organizations was examined in four cases that vary by policy issue area and level of government: (1) federal tobacco control; (2) Maryland tobacco control; (3) federal gun policy; and (4) Maryland gun policy. To inform the cases, in-depth interviews were conducted with high-level decision makers from key public health advocacy organizations working in each policy area as well as with researchers whose work the advocates identified as particularly useful. An iterative and reflexive qualitative analytic approach was used to examine the narrative responses within and across the four cases.;From this analysis, several themes and conclusions emerged regarding how and why advocacy organizations use research. First, all participants described using research both to set and implement their advocacy agendas. Second, advocates perceived the political feasibility of policy solutions as a necessary antecedent to research utilization. Third high organizational capacity for research utilization or partnership with high-capacity organizations facilitates research utilization. Further, the interviewees cited timing as an important determinant of the usefulness of research. Finally, while the perceptions of advocates across cases were strikingly similar, federal advocacy organizations tend to have higher capacity for research utilization and research plays a more central agenda-setting role in tobacco control advocacy.;By expanding what is known about the role of research in advocacy and, more broadly, in public health policymaking, the study's findings can inform the efforts of advocates, researchers, funders to facilitate the translation, acquisition, and use of research to advance public health objectives.