Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 May 24:11:19.
doi: 10.1186/1478-4505-11-19.

Policymakers' and other stakeholders' perceptions of key considerations for health system decisions and the presentation of evidence to inform those considerations: an international survey

Joshua P Vogel  1 , Andrew D Oxman, Claire Glenton, Sarah Rosenbaum, Simon Lewin, A Metin Gülmezoglu, João Paulo Souza
Affiliations

Policymakers' and other stakeholders' perceptions of key considerations for health system decisions and the presentation of evidence to inform those considerations: an international survey

Joshua P Vogel et al. Health Res Policy Syst. .

Abstract

Background: The DECIDE framework was developed to support evidence-informed health system decisions through evidence summaries tailored to health policymakers. The objective of this study was to determine policymakers' perceptions regarding the criteria in the DECIDE framework and how best to summarise and present evidence to support health system decisions.

Methods: We conducted an online survey of a diverse group of stakeholders with health system decision experience from 15 countries and the World Health Organization. We asked about perceptions of criteria relevant to making health system decisions, use of evidence, grading systems, and evidence summaries.

Results: We received 112 responses (70% response rate). Most respondents had healthcare (85%) and research (79%) experience. They (99%) indicated that systematic consideration of the available evidence would help to improve health system decision-making processes and supported the use of evidence from other countries (94%) and grading systems (81%). All ten criteria in the DECIDE framework were rated as important in the decision-making process. Respondents had divergent views regarding whether the same (38%) or different (45%) grading systems should be used across different types of health decisions. All components of our evidence summary were rated as important by over 90% of respondents.

Conclusions: Survey respondents were supportive of the DECIDE framework for health system decisions and the use of succinct summaries of the estimated size of effects and the quality of evidence. It is uncertain whether the findings of this survey represent the views of policymakers with little or no healthcare and research experience.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Survey responses regarding criteria considered for individual health system decisions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Survey responses rating the importance of criteria in health system decisions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Survey responses rating the importance of components of a summary of evidence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Glenton C, Santesso N, Rosenbaum SE, Nilsen ES, Rader T, Ciapponi A, Dilkes HH. Presenting the results of Cochrane Systematic Reviews to a consumer audience: a qualitative study. Med Decis Making. 2010;30:566–577. doi: 10.1177/0272989X10375853. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rosenbaum SE, Glenton C, Wiysonge CS, Abalos E, Mignini L, Young T, Althabe F, Ciapponi A, Marti SG, Meng Q, Wang J, La Hoz Bradford AM, Kiwanuka SN, Rutebemberwa E, Pariyo GW, Flottorp S, OA D. Evidence summaries tailored to health policy-makers in low-and middle-income countries. WHO Bull. 2011;89:54–61. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lavis JN, Permanand G, Oxman AD, Lewin S, Fretheim A. SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health Policymaking (STP) 13: Preparing and using policy briefs to support evidence-informed policymaking. Health Res Policy Syst. 2009;7(Suppl 1):S13. doi: 10.1186/1478-4505-7-S1-S13. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. The SURE Collaboration. SURE Guides for Preparing and Using Evidence-Based Policy Briefs. 2. Oslo, Norway: SURE Collaboration; 2011.
    1. West S, King V, Carey TS, Lohr KN, McKoy N, Sutton SF, Lux L. AHRQ Evidence Report Summaries. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2002. Systems to Rate the Strength of Scientific Evidence: Summary. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types