What works to increase the use of research in population health policy and programmes: a review

Policy agencies are implementing strategies to increase the use of research in policy decisions. This paper examines the evidence about the effectiveness of these strategies. We conducted an extensive search focused on population health policy and programmes. We classified 106 papers meeting study criteria into research type (conceptual, descriptive and intervention). We examined the descriptive studies to identify commonly nominated potential intervention strategies. We examined the intervention studies to evaluate the impact of the tested strategies in increasing the use of research in policy decisions. There is little evidence about which strategies increase the use of evidence in population health policy and programmes.