State Officials Often Do Not Read Health Policy Research, Study Says

State officials, often "overwhelmed" by the amount of health policy research that they receive, have a "strong preference" for "information that is concise and more relevant to current debates" and often do not read more than one-third of that research, according to a study published in the current issue of Health Affairs. In the study, titled "Power of Information: Closing the Gap Between Research and Policy," researchers from the Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research Policy and T. Baugh and Co., a Washington, D.C.-based market research company, interviewed 292 state officials nationwide between November 2000 and January 2001. The study found that state officials "skim" 53% of the health policy research that they receive, do not read 35% of the information and only read 27% of the information in detail. Respondents were asked to give separate estimates for each of these categories. State officials consider 49% of health policy research "not relevant to their current work," the study found. According to the study, 67% of state officials said that "relevant" health policy research should focus on "current debates," and 36% said that the "least useful" information does not address "real problems." The study also found that state officials prefer "short bulleted paragraphs" with charts and graphs to highlight "key points," rather than information "containing large blocks of type" (Sorian/Baugh, Health Affairs, March/April 2002). "Health policy research must be both rigorous and relevant to capture policy makers' attention, and there was a strong preference for short, easy-to-digest information," study lead author Richard Sorian, a senior researcher and director of public affairs at the Center for Studying Health System Change, said. He added, "The study findings should serve as a wake-up call to the health services research community to evaluate the relevance of their research to the real-world information needs" of state officials (HSC release, 3/12).