Towards public health decision support: a systematic review of bidirectional communication approaches

Background: Decisions related to the development and implementation of public health programmes or policies can benefit from more effective use of the best available knowledge. However, decision makers do not always feel sufficiently equipped or may lack the capacity to use evidence. This can lead them to overlook or set aside research results that could be relevant to their practice area.Aims and objectives: The objective of this systematic review was to synthesise the essential skills that facilitate the use of research evidence by public health decision makers.Methods: Thirty-nine articles that met our inclusion criteria were included. An inductive approach was used to extract data on evidence-informed decision-making-related skills and data were synthesised as a narrative review.Findings: The analysis revealed three categories of skills that are essential for evidence-informed decision-making process: interpersonal, cognitive, and leadership and influencing skills. Such cross-sectoral skills are essential for identifying, obtaining, synthesising, and integrating sound research results into the decision-making process.Discussion and conclusions: The results of this systematic review will help direct capacity-building efforts towards enhancing research evidence use by public health decision makers, such as developing different types of training that would be relevant to their needs. Also, when considering the evidence-informed decision-making skills development, there are several useful and complementary approaches to link research most effectively to action. On one hand, it is important not only to support decision makers at the individual level through skills development, but also to provide them with a day-to-day environment that is conducive to evidence use. Key messages <ul><li>Public health programmes or policies can benefit from more effective use of the best available knowledge;</li> <li>This review identified 39 studies on skills related to evidence-informed decision making;</li> <li>Three categories of skills are proposed: cognitive, interpersonal and leadership and influencing skills;</li> <li>It will help direct capacity-building efforts towards enhancing evidence use by decision makers.</li></ul>

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A public health decision support system framework using approximate reasoning methods

2013 Joint IFSA World Congress and NAFIPS Annual Meeting (IFSA/NAFIPS) ◽

10.1109/ifsa-nafips.2013.6608387 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nick. J. Pizzi

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Decision Support ◽

Decision Support System ◽

Support System ◽

Approximate Reasoning ◽

System Framework ◽

Public Health Decision ◽

Health Decision

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Facilitating evidence uptake: development and user testing of a systematic review summary format to inform public health decision-making in German-speaking countries

Health Research Policy and Systems ◽

10.1186/s12961-018-0307-z ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Laura K. Busert ◽

◽

Margot Mütsch ◽

Christina Kien ◽

Aline Flatz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Decision Making ◽

User Testing ◽

Public Health Decision ◽

Health Decision Making ◽

Health Decision ◽

German Speaking

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Global epidemiology of mucopolysaccharidosis type III (Sanfilippo syndrome): an updated systematic review and meta-analysis

Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism ◽

10.1515/jpem-2020-0742 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Weijing Kong ◽

Shanshan Wu ◽

Jing Zhang ◽

Cheng Lu ◽

Yingxue Ding ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Decision Making ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Birth Prevalence ◽

Public Health Decision ◽

Live Births ◽

Health Decision Making ◽

Global Epidemiology ◽

Health Decision

Abstract Objectives Mucopolysaccharidosis III, an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder, is characterized by progressive mental retardation and behavioral problems. Meta-analysis of global mucopolysaccharidosis III epidemiology, which serves as a fundamental reference for public health decision-making, was not available prior to this study. To provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of birth prevalence of mucopolysaccharidosis III in multiple countries. Methods MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched for original research articles on the epidemiology of mucopolysaccharidosis III from inception until 1st July, 2020. A checklist adapted from STROBE (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology) was used to assess the quality of all studies involved. Meta-analysis, adopting a random effects logistic model, was performed to estimate pooled birth prevalence of mucopolysaccharidosis III and its subtypes. Results Twenty-five studies screened out of 1,826 records were included for data extraction. The pooled global mucopolysaccharidosis III birth prevalence was 0.76 cases (95% CI: 0.57–0.96) per 100,000 live births. The pooled global birth prevalence of mucopolysaccharidosis III subtypes (A, B, and C) was 0.52 cases (95% CI: 0.33–0.72), 0.21 cases (95% CI: 0.12–0.30) and 0.01 cases (95% CI: 0.005–0.02) per 100,000 live births, respectively. Conclusions Based on the global population size (7.8 billion) and the life span of patients, there would be 12–19 thousand mucopolysaccharidosis III patients worldwide. To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive systematic review that presented quantitative data fundamental for evidence-based public health decision-making by evaluating global epidemiology of mucopolysaccharidosis III.

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