Evidence-based Health Policy at the Local Level

• In Event: State and Local Evidence for Policy Change and Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

Scholars have long studied the process and impact (or lack thereof) of evidence-based health policymaking. Two key questions concern how and when policymakers use research evidence to craft and decide on health policy. To date, most of this work has been at the national level (in the United States). Moreover, although some exceptions certainly exist, one recent article argued that "the state of understanding in the field remains remarkably impressionistic or setting specific" as opposed to being based on "systematically acquired empirical information (Peterson 2018).

With that in mind, in this study we contribute to our understanding of the acquisition and use of research evidence in health policy-making in two ways. First, we study a large, well-defined population of legislators all at once — all county legislators in the state of New York who sit on committees with jurisdiction related to health issues. Relative to national policymakers, those at the local (and state) level could also benefit from research yet often lack the personal or staff capacity to acquire it. Here we study when and why they say yes when offered a short conversation with a researcher who is an expert in a health policy-related area that corresponds to their jurisdiction. Second, we do so in a way that enables us to systematically answer vital research questions about the characteristics and motivations that explain their demand for and use of research. Here we do so by conducting a field experiment in which we vary how we describe the opportunity to connect. We also follow-up to study the impact of these conversations. Overall, our project provides new evidence on evidence-based policymaking at the local level, and also sheds new light on the motivations that underlie its acquisition and use.

Author

• Adam Seth Levine, Johns Hopkins University