Appendix F: Participant interview follow-up script

Introductions:

Facilitator and participant(s)
Confirm consent form has been received**

Confidentiality note and start recording

Quick overview:

• the aim of this project is to understand evidence use processes in order to ‘optimise’ evidence translation and enable greater adoption/ implementation into policy/practice for healthy sustainable diets.

• EVIDENCE = research (primary, secondary, practical) that supports or discourages an action toward healthy and sustainable diets
• EVIDENCE USE = when research is considered as part of the policy/ practice decision-making process

Terms:

• GENERATION involves conducting primary research, synthesising existing research OR assessing and evaluating existing evidence

• TRANSLATION: message crafting = the critical process of reviewing data to identify and filter relevant research findings, interpret results and adapt/ contextualise it for the appropriate audience; communication = process of identifying appropriate audience(s) and formatting evidence into a deliverable message that can be effectively received by end-users
• ADOPTION occurs when evidence is received and reviewed by appropriate audiences, judged as useful and considered when crafting the new policy/practice into actions; evidence influence may vary, but it MUST have some influence on decision making process in order to be ‘adopted’
• IMPLEMENTATION involves deciding how to pursue the policy/ practice, converting it into actionable steps (including who is responsible for delivery) and delivering it to the public in the appropriate setting/ environment 

Any questions so far?

Warm-up/ focus question: Can you think of any examples of where you’ve made a decision or change based on evidence?
Probe: Why did you decide to implement this piece of evidence? What was it about this piece of evidence that made you adopt it? How was it communicated to you?

Topic 1: How are decisions for evidence use made in your work/ experience?

Follow-up/ consideration questions (don’t always ask every one, just hit the main points!):

• what informs evidence use decisions?
• who is responsible for decision making? Who is responsible for implementing change?
• how important is evidence to you when making decisions? Probe: do you actively seek out evidence? Why / why not? When would you consider evidence, and when wouldn’t you – i.e. are there decisions that evidence is more important for?
• which types or forms of evidence do you consider and why? Are certain types of evidence better or more useful than others? (i.e. academic research vs. practical research vs. media) Probe: why might you consider one type of evidence over another? Do you consider any to be better? Why? If they don’t consider evidence, why not?

Topic 2: How is evidence currently communicated to you and how would you like it to be communicated to you?

Follow-up/ consideration questions:

• what are the strengths of how evidence has been communicated to you? (for example, repetitive/ multiple reminders, format, trusted source, etc.)
• what are the weaknesses? (i.e. poor timing, misunderstanding of ‘real’ process, difficult to understand, etc.)
• what would ‘good’ evidence translation look like to you and why?

Topic 3: Barriers and enablers -- What makes it difficult to find, use and apply evidence/ knowledge in your decision-making process? What makes it easier to find, use and apply evidence/ knowledge in your decision-making process?

Follow-up questions/ considerations:

Rank barriers and enablers

• do any of these barriers (or difficulties) come up more often than others?
• are any of the enablers (for example, supporting practices) especially useful?

Wrap-up

Thanks for participating

Next steps:

• review workshop findings and draft ‘practical guidelines’ for optimising evidence
• follow-up feedback session in early January to review drafts
• final outputs end of January, can send if interested
• you are able to request withdrawal from the study at any point, no questions asked, until 10 January 2022 by emailing Rachel

Follow-up email will be sent in the next few weeks with more information about the feedback session.

Read more:

Guiding Principles for translating evidence on diet shift for people in the real world main report

Promoting healthy and sustainable diets: How to effectively generate and translate evidence landing page