Bridging the gaps among research, policy and practice in ten low- and middle-income countries: Development and testing of a questionnaire for researchers
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Date
2010
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Health Research Policy and Systems
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.
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Keywords
Content Validity, High Internal Consistency, Conceptual Domain
Citation
Cameron, D., Lavis, J.N., Guindon, G.E., Akhtar, T., Posada, F.B., Ndossi, G.D. and Boupha, B., 2010. Bridging the gaps among research, policy and practice in ten low-and middle-income countries: Development and testing of a questionnaire for researchers. Health Research Policy and Systems, 8(1), p.4.