Measuring the impact of prevention research on public health practice

Context: Prevention research involves the translation of established and pr omising methods of disease prevention and health promotion to communities. Despite its importance, relatively little attention has been paid to system atic approaches to determining the impact of prevention research on public health practice. Evaluation of these effects is challenging, particularly i n light of multi-factor causation, long time periods between exposure and d isease occurrence, and difficulties in determining costs and benefits. Objective: To develop a framework that allows the prospective or retrospect ive evaluation of the effects and effectiveness of prevention research. Results: The proposed framework allows assessment of prevention research in five areas of public health practice: surveillance and disease investigati on, program delivery, policies and regulations, recommendations to the publ ic, and public health education and training. A brief case study of environ mental tobacco smoke illustrates the public health impact of prevention res earch. Conclusions: Greater translation of prevention research findings is needed to accomplish public health goals--efforts are enhanced by academic-practic e partnerships. The relevance and utility of the current framework needs ad ditional testing with a variety of public health issues.