Understanding Health Research
Public Engagement with Research Case studies
Introduction
Understanding Health Research (UHR) is a free, innovative online tool designed to help everyone read, understand and interpret published health research by asking the right questions about its quality and relevance. UHR is designed for patients, carers, students, policymakers and many others.
Critical appraisal skills are not routinely taught in the UK, and those without a scientific background may struggle to interpret and assess health evidence that they encounter in their daily lives from the media or other sources.
As part of the MRC PHSRN funded project ‘Telling Good Health Science From Bad Health Science’, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU) researchers held workshops and interviews with health evidence producers and users including scientists, policymakers and others.
This MVLS project identified a lack of available support for people who need to engage with scientific evidence but do not have scientific training – such as patients, carers, health advocates, students and policymakers - and highlighted the need for a flexible resource that would be:
- responsive to different types of research;
- capable of walking first time users through reading and assessing an academic paper;
- online and available from anywhere;
- free to all users; and
- able to demystify the process and terminology of health research.
In response to this, Shona Hilton, Chris Patterson & Amy Nimegeer at the SPHSU, along with partners, co-produced Understanding Health Research with users.
The Project was a Winner in the MVLS Engagement Awards 2019 rewarding good public engagement practice with MVLS research.
Partners
Understanding Health Research was developed in collaboration with key stakeholders including
- Susan Jebb, Professor of Diet and population Health, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
- David Ogilvie, Programme Leader, MRC Epidemiology Unit, Centre of Diet and Activity Research, University of Cambridge
- Mark Petticrew, Professor of Public Health Evaluation, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Director, Public Health Research Consortium
And additional development and testing was supported by:
- Matthew Lowther, Principle Public Health Adviser, NHS Health Scotland
- Matthew Sullivan, Manchester Metropolitan University
- Simon Denegri, Chair, INVOLVE; National Director for Public Participation and Engagement in Research
- Phil Davies, University of Oxford
- Hilary Jones, Communications manager, MRC Human Nutrition Research
- Staff and students at MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow
A small grant from the University of Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Fund supported us to test and launch the tool in collaboration with partner organisations Minervation and Sense about Science respectively.
Where did the idea or need come from?
Engagement was central to our original research, as we wanted to engage stakeholders to identify real world problems in science communication.
When it came to developing Understanding Health Research (UHR), engagement was both key to the development of the resource (in the form of iterative testing and development with users) but is also the purpose of the final tool itself.
UHR is designed to support people from all backgrounds to engage more easily with research. We thought this was vital because, although research is easier to access than ever because of the open access movement, without scientific training it can be challenging to make sense of evidence. We engaged with users and stakeholders throughout the creation and testing of UHR to make sure the tool was functional, met peoples’ needs, and was as user friendly for as many people as possible.
Evaluation
“I, and the Health Committee secretariat, receive a lot of research and this will be a useful tool in determining its quality.” Letter from Sarah Wollaston MP on the launch of UHR
Since the development of Understanding Health Research (UHR) was iterative, it has gone through many cycles of testing with stakeholders including focus groups, guided walkthroughs, and collaborative feedback workshops with students.
UHR was tested for accessibility with participants from each of the targeted underserved groups, and the design has been iteratively improved in response to feedback to ensure usability.
“It just helped me be a bit more objective when I was looking [at a paper].” and “I think it will definitely make a difference with [my] grade” Both Focus Group Respondents
UHR is currently being formally evaluated as a teaching tool with nursing and dentistry undergraduate students (evaluation due to finish next year) and initial evidence from the qualitative process evaluation shows positive impacts on users:
It has already been embedded into undergraduate level teaching at the University of Glasgow, University of Stirling and University of Highlands and Islands among others.
Impact
Understanding Health Research garnered significant media attention including:
- an interview with Chris Patterson on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland,
- an article by Amy Nimegeer and Chris Patterson in The Conversation, and
- articles about the tool in The Guardian, The Irish Times and the BMJ.
It has also received written support from Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, and the Scottish Government’s Health Literacy team. Since launch it has supported 390,000 users from six continents, and dozens of participants have attended workshops run across the country including students, policymakers, health advocates, patients, third sector workers, and allied health professionals. UHR also formed the basis of an evidence submission by the team to a parliamentary enquiry on science communication and engagement.
Potential users can now be directed to UHR via links on websites such as NHS Choices Behind the Headlines; EQUATOR; Robert Gordon University; and the NHS Health Research Authority. In addition to widespread media coverage, UHR was the subject of substantial social media discussion, including tweets from high profile organisations such as Public Health England, CEDAR, The Science Council, RCUK USA, NIHR CRSU, ASH Scotland and various MRC units, as well as public academics Simon Singh (68k followers), Timothy Caulfield (18k followers) and David Spiegelhalter (14k followers).
The team has also created a community engagement activity based on UHR called 'the Booth of Confusion' which showcases confusing mixed messages about evidence and introduces UHR. This has been delivered to multiple lay audiences of mixed ages at the Glasgow Science Festival and other public events.
The UHR tool has a dedicated Twitter account to promote the tool, as well as the principles of engagement with science
Lessons learned
We were surprised by the amount of time and effort it took to get it right because we wanted something that would be of high quality and useful to a large range of audiences.
But ultimately, we learned that this level of engagement was absolutely vital to make sure that UHR was fit for purpose.
The development of the engagement resource was something we had to fit around our main work projects, which made it challenging but rewarding.
The large impact that UHR had was helped along by the support we received from the UofG Knowledge Exchange Fund, as well as our excellent comms team. Our advice would be to take advantage of the support that is on offer here at Glasgow, and connect strategically with partners who can help you through their expertise and contacts.
Legacy
UHR remains freely available and the team continues to improve it in response to feedback offered via the website itself, as well as hosting UHR-themed workshops.
We are now the process of applying for funding to create a version of UHR for secondary school children of all backgrounds, and those with lower literacy. This project will include continuing collaborations with some of our original project partners, as well as new ones in the education sector. We also have plans to convert our UHR workshops into a short course in critical appraisal and engage with local libraries as a space to further promote UHR to the public.
Contact
Contact Amy Nimegeer or Chris Patterson for more information or to talk to us about booking workshops.