Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Health policy and systems research (HPSR) helps to understand and improve how societies organize themselves in achieving collective health goals, and how different actors interact in the policy and implementation processes to contribute to policy outcomes. Recognizing the importance of HPSR, a series of HPSR workshops has conducted for HPSR capacity building in Malaysia since decades ago. This study aims to assess the HPSR capacity among former HPSR workshop participants.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study using an online survey questionnaire conducted between April to June 2021. A pilot test was conducted to validate the questionnaire. The name list of participants from previous HPSR workshops was retrieved from The questions asked revolved around respondents ' experience in HPSR training, HPSR application in their work and their opinions on the gaps in HPSR training.
RESULTS: A total of 180 responses . Twenty-four out of 44 respondents have background in public health. All respondents have at least attended one HPSR course. Thirty-five respondents used the HPSR knowledge to conduct research. Fourteen respondents used it to inform policies. Most of the respondents (34) felt supported by their institutions in applying the knowledge and skills. However, only 21 respondents have conducted at least one HPSR course. Majority respondents were neutral that it was easy to teach the seven HPSR competency domains to others and agreed that these competencies were core to their current job. The six most highlighted gaps in HPSR in Malaysia were lacking in term of awareness (56.9%), training opportunities (52.3%), teaching institution (50%), evidence uptake by stakeholder (45.5%), specialists (43.2%) and demand for HPSR skills from employers (34.1%). The strategies that can be taken by policy makers to encourage HPSR capacity development in Malaysia are to ensure that HPSR training is aligned with needs and national priorities (79.6%), to ensure HPSR evidences lead to policy and practice change (77.3%), to support HPSR training institutions (70%), to allocate resources for training (68.2%) and to allocate resources for individuals to train in HPSR (65.9%). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The assessment of HPSR capacity among former HPSR workshop participants showed that more effort should be emphasized on increasing the HPSR awareness to promote evidence uptake and training opportunities to produce more HPSR specialists. The findings ' conclusiveness was however limited by the low response rate and limited to former HPSR workshop participants.
Links
- https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-P-14.pdf
- https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/wpforms/1176-1e04940bb5d885bf8711ed1909[...]
BibTeX (Download)
@proceedings{APCPH2022-P-14,
title = {Assessing Health policy and systems research (HPSR) Capacity Among Former HPSR Workshop Series Participants Using Online Survey},
author = {Inin Roslyza Rusli and Kartiekasari Syahidda Mohammad Zubairi1 and Nur Hidayati Abdul Halim1 and Ainul Nadziha Mohd Hanafiah and Kalvina Chelladorai and Nur Azmiah Zainuddin and Nurul Iman Jamalul-lail and Tan Yui Ping and Devi Shantini Rata Mohan and Masrol Hafizal Ismail and Zulkarn},
url = {https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/APCPH2022-P-14.pdf
https://apcph.cphm.my/wp-content/uploads/wpforms/1176-1e04940bb5d885bf8711ed19095a89ed/APCPH2022-P-14-APCPH-2022-6b8f3fe5cc87ca1cc10ca948a2fed393.pdf},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-08-02},
urldate = {2022-08-02},
issue = {7},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: Health policy and systems research (HPSR) helps to understand and improve how societies organize themselves in achieving collective health goals, and how different actors interact in the policy and implementation processes to contribute to policy outcomes. Recognizing the importance of HPSR, a series of HPSR workshops has conducted for HPSR capacity building in Malaysia since decades ago. This study aims to assess the HPSR capacity among former HPSR workshop participants.
METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study using an online survey questionnaire conducted between April to June 2021. A pilot test was conducted to validate the questionnaire. The name list of participants from previous HPSR workshops was retrieved from The questions asked revolved around respondents ' experience in HPSR training, HPSR application in their work and their opinions on the gaps in HPSR training.
RESULTS: A total of 180 responses . Twenty-four out of 44 respondents have background in public health. All respondents have at least attended one HPSR course. Thirty-five respondents used the HPSR knowledge to conduct research. Fourteen respondents used it to inform policies. Most of the respondents (34) felt supported by their institutions in applying the knowledge and skills. However, only 21 respondents have conducted at least one HPSR course. Majority respondents were neutral that it was easy to teach the seven HPSR competency domains to others and agreed that these competencies were core to their current job. The six most highlighted gaps in HPSR in Malaysia were lacking in term of awareness (56.9%), training opportunities (52.3%), teaching institution (50%), evidence uptake by stakeholder (45.5%), specialists (43.2%) and demand for HPSR skills from employers (34.1%). The strategies that can be taken by policy makers to encourage HPSR capacity development in Malaysia are to ensure that HPSR training is aligned with needs and national priorities (79.6%), to ensure HPSR evidences lead to policy and practice change (77.3%), to support HPSR training institutions (70%), to allocate resources for training (68.2%) and to allocate resources for individuals to train in HPSR (65.9%). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The assessment of HPSR capacity among former HPSR workshop participants showed that more effort should be emphasized on increasing the HPSR awareness to promote evidence uptake and training opportunities to produce more HPSR specialists. The findings ' conclusiveness was however limited by the low response rate and limited to former HPSR workshop participants.},
howpublished = {published online at https://apcph.cphm.my},
note = {Type: POSTER PRESENTATION; Organisation: Institute For Health Systems Research; Policy and International Relations Division, MOH; National Institutes of Health},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}