Research utilization of the Department of Disease Control, during 2014-2016

Abstract

This study applied the logic model to evaluate the utilization of the researches conducted by the Department of Disease Control (DDC), Ministry of Public Health. The objective was to study the situation of research utilization, among the researches granted by DDC, from 2014 to 2016. This cross‐sectional study was conducted using an in-depth interview and questionnaire. The 51 principal investigators (PI) conducting 54 research projects from 20 August to 6 September 2018, completed the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used for the data analysis. The results of 35 reports conducted by 35 researchers showed that 57.1% were applied researches and 62.9% were one-year projects. It appeared that 53.7% were utilized for many aspects and 82.8% were utilized for academic purposes. The majority of them were from a category of basic research. Those researches were utilized through the submission to the Thai Journal (44.44%), the oral presentation to the conferences/seminars in the country (36.1%), and also with the poster presentation in the country (13.9%). However, only 5.5% of them were disseminated in the international conferences/seminars. For the PIs’ backgrounds, most of them were 50 years of age and above and graduated in a master's degree. They had some experiences as PIs for 11-15 years with 5-10 research projects, and worked for DDC for more than 20 years. The challenges from this study are the limitation in the financial supports especially for the utilization through a poster presentation, no written subject matters included in a DDC year plan and budget as well as the limitation of the researchers. The findings suggest that the researchers’ experiences should be concerned as one requirement for the PIs especially for the policy researchers. Additionally, DDC should strengthen the capacity building system for the young generation by matching them to the mentor or consultants who have experienced as PIs and include them as a part of the research team. In addition, the research projects to reduce the causes of deaths related to the high-rank burden of disease report, especially in the area of non-communicable diseases should be highlighted.