Research that influences policy and practice – characteristics of operational research to improve malaria control in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Abstract

BackgroundMuch communicable disease control research has had little impact on local control programme policy and practice for want of an operational component. The operational research model – the systematic search for knowledge on interventions, tools or strategies that enhance programme effectiveness – is gaining recognition as an appropriate method for addressing perplexing questions within public health programmes.MethodsA series of operational research studies were conducted to refine malaria diagnosis in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa between 1995 and 1999. The grounded theory approach was used with groups of experienced Masters of Public Health students in South Africa and Australia to analyse a compilation of these studies for determining positive and negative attributes of operational research that affect its ability to influence communicable disease control policy and practice.ResultsThe principal positive attributes of the operational research studies were high local relevance, greater ability to convince local decision-makers, relatively short lag-time before implementation of findings, and the cost-effective nature of this form of research. Potential negative features elicited included opportunities forfeited by using scarce resources to conduct research and the need to adequately train local health staff in research methodology to ensure valid results and accurate interpretation of findings.ConclusionsOperational research effectively influenced disease control policy and practice in rural South Africa, by providing relevant answers to local questions and engaging policy-makers. This resulted in accelerated inclusion of appropriate measures into a local communicable disease control programme.

Getting research into practice: primary care management of noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries

“…In low-and middleincome countries, operational research has proven highly effective for guiding the implementation and facilitating the scale-up of interventions against highburden communicable diseases. 4,5 WHO has proposed a framework for integrating NCD prevention into primary health care.…”

Learning lessons from operational research in infectious diseases: can the same model be used for noncommunicable diseases in developing countries?

“…Whatever the process, it is important to have a clearly articulated set of research priorities. Operational research priorities have been defined for such infectious diseases as guinea-worm disease, 80 helminthiasis, 81 NTDs, 82 TB, 83 , 84 malaria, 85 and HIV control. 86 The research priorities for NCDs should define the scope of what diseases a country considers NCDs.…”

The malaria control model in the Department of Antioquia: a case study

“…Así mismo, se registró el grado de desarrollo en memoria institucional municipal y se realizó inspección documental de los archivos municipales, que a la vez se constituyó en fuentes de información secundaria El Índice Parasitario Anual-IPA, se construyó a partir de información primaria de número de casos y la información sobre población municipal, del Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísticas-DANE. La información primaria y secundaria de tipo cualitativo se interpreto con el método de la teoría fundamentada (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Las categorías de análisis fueron preestablecidas de acuerdo con los capítulos de las guías que se utilizaron para obtener la información cualitativa.…”