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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Jul 16, 2009
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September 2009, Vol 99, No. 9 | American Journal of Public Health 1576-1583
© 2009 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.156224

GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, AND LAW

Understanding Evidence-Based Public Health Policy

Ross C. Brownson, PhD, Jamie F. Chriqui, PhD and Katherine A. Stamatakis, PhD, MPH

Ross C. Brownson is with the Prevention Research Center in St Louis, the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and the Department of Surgery and Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, School of Medicine, Washington University, St Louis. Jamie F. Chriqui is with the Health Policy Center, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois, Chicago. Katherine A. Stamatakis is with the Department of Surgery and Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, School of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis.

Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Ross C. Brownson, PhD, Washington University in St Louis, 660 S Euclid, Campus Box 8109, St Louis, MO 63110 (e-mail: rbrownson{at}wustl.edu). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the "Reprints/Eprints" link.

Public health policy has a profound impact on health status. Missing from the literature is a clear articulation of the definition of evidence-based policy and approaches to move the field forward. Policy-relevant evidence includes both quantitative (e.g., epidemiological) and qualitative information (e.g., narrative accounts).

We describe 3 key domains of evidence-based policy: (1) process, to understand approaches to enhance the likelihood of policy adoption; (2) content, to identify specific policy elements that are likely to be effective; and (3) outcomes, to document the potential impact of policy.

Actions to further evidence-based policy include preparing and communicating data more effectively, using existing analytic tools more effectively, conducting policy surveillance, and tracking outcomes with different types of evidence.






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