Table 6 Summarized results of studies that have examined the impact of health research
Variables examined | Publicly funded health and health services research Hong Kong, Kwan et al., 2007 [12] | Primary health care research, Australia, Reed et al., 2011 [13] | Asthma research UK, Hanney et al., 2013 [9] | Cardiovascular research, UK, Canada, Australia, Wooding et al., 2014 [15] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The organization examined | Health and health research fund | All primary health care research studies funded by the National Health Medical Research Council, the Aboriginal Health Medical Research Council, the General Practice Evaluation Program, the Cooperative Research Council for Aboriginal Health, and the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development | Charity funding | English department of health |
Canadian Institutes of Health Research | ||||
Charities: The Heart Foundation (Australia), Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, British Heart Foundation, UK Stroke Association | ||||
Type of studies | Public health and health services research | Interventional descriptive | Not specified | Basic clinical |
Number of projects | 205 | 41 | 153 | 29 |
Response rate | 86.8% | 49% | 59% | 100% |
Results: knowledge advancement | 5.4 articles per project 295 projects have been cited in ISI and social sciences, wherein each article has been cited 1.9 times on average | 2.3 articles per project | 4 articles per project | All the studies had academic impact (basic science studies had greater impact than clinical ones); however, the wider impact of clinical studies was greater than that of basic science studies |
Results: capacity building | 44.9% used for future research | 94% used for staff development | 45 PhD graduates, 21 MDs | |
65% used for future research | 23% used for future research | |||
Results: impact on decision-making | 35.4% impact on informing policy (treatment guideline and protocol, reference standard, Cochrane review) | 100% have been utilized in guidelines and systematic reviews | 13% of projects have influenced policies | |
77% provided information for policymaking | ||||
49.4% created change in behaviour or clinical practice in managers, service providers and the public | 31% influenced policymaking | |||
85% provided information for organizations and 73% influenced it/them | ||||
Results: health and economic impacts | 42.1% caused health services benefit (adoption of cost effective strategies, qualitative improvement, improved effectiveness of public health policies, selling of intellectual property rights) | 70% improved service delivery | 10% have influenced health | |
58% used in clinical practice | 17% of projects have resulted in manufacture of products | |||
50% improved health outcome | For every pound invested, 1.40 pounds were secured for the next projects from sources other than Asthma UK |