Evidence-based policy revisited: Orientation towards the policy process and a public health policy science

摘要

At a time when the debate on evidence-based medicine was already followed by a broad audience from both science and practice in the mid-1990s, it was suggested that the evidence-based approach should also apply to health policy: "If doctors are expected to base their decisions on the findings of research surely politicians should do the same" (Ham et al. 1995, p. 71). Subsequently, it has been claimed that evidence-based policy "is not simply an extension of evidence-based medicine: it is qualitatively different" and that "context is all important" (Black 2001, p. 277). With regard to health promotion, McQueen and Anderson (2001) emphasized the need for adequate theory in the evidence debate, pointing to the fact that theories of collective decision-making (e.g. in policy processes) are largely distinct from individual decision-making (e.g. in medical practices).