Evaluation of researchers' policy-related knowledge, needs and self-efficacy before and after the 2021 Texas Legislative Session.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate public health researchers' perceptions of policy-informed research, self-efficacy, knowledge and training needs both before and after participating in an initiative to improve their engagement with legislative offices during the January-May 2021 Texas Legislative Session.

Methods: A total of 111 researchers were contacted about participating in the initiative, and 45 expressed interest and were thus enrolled. After receiving training on communication skills specific to legislative audiences, 27 researchers were matched with participating legislative offices based on location, availability and expertise. Self-administered surveys assessed policy informed research, self-efficacy, knowledge and training needs pre- and post-session. Paired t-tests compared pre- and post-session mean scale scores. Two-sample t-tests compared scale scores between matched and unmatched researchers.

Findings: Most researchers (66 per cent) communicated with legislative offices fewer than five times during the previous two years. Compared to pre-session (baseline), there was a significant increase in reported policy knowledge and a significant decrease in perceived training needs in the post-session (follow-up) survey among all researchers. At baseline, legislator-matched researchers had significantly higher policy-related self-efficacy and lower perceived training needs than the unmatched researchers; however, scores between matched and unmatched researchers were not significantly different at follow-up.

Discussion and conclusions: Our findings show that actively applying learned skills through the research-to-policy framework is beneficial in building researchers' policy-related knowledge and their preparedness to engage with state legislators. The resulting potential for researcher-legislator partnerships to transform our public health system is highlighted.