Systematic overviews of partnership principles and strategies identified from health research about spinal cord injury and related health conditions: A scoping review

Femke Hoekstra; Francisca Trigo; Kathryn M Sibley; Ian D Graham; Michael Kennefick; Kelly J Mrklas; Tram Nguyen; Mathew Vis-Dunbar; SC. I. Guiding Principles Consensus Panel; Heather L Gainforth

doi:10.1080/10790268.2022.2033578

Systematic overviews of partnership principles and strategies identified from health research about spinal cord injury and related health conditions: A scoping review

J Spinal Cord Med. 2023 Jul;46(4):614-631. doi: 10.1080/10790268.2022.2033578. Epub 2022 Mar 9.

Authors

Femke Hoekstra^{1

2

3}, Francisca Trigo³, Kathryn M Sibley^{4

5}, Ian D Graham^{6

7}, Michael Kennefick¹, Kelly J Mrklas^{8

9}, Tram Nguyen^{10

11

12}, Mathew Vis-Dunbar¹³; SC. I. Guiding Principles Consensus Panel; Heather L Gainforth^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Health and Exercise Sciences, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, Canada.
² International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
³ Centre for Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
⁵ George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
⁶ School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁷ Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁸ Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁹ Strategic Clinical Networks™, Provincial Clinical Excellence, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, AB, Canada.
¹⁰ School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹² CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
¹³ UBC Okanagan Library, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, Canada.

Abstract

Study design: Scoping review.

Objective: To identify and provide systematic overviews of partnership principles and strategies identified from health research about spinal cord injury (SCI) and related health conditions.

Methods: Four health electronic databases (Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO) were searched from inception to March 2019. We included articles that described, reflected, and/or evaluated one or more collaborative research activities in health research about SCI, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, amputation, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, acquired brain injury, or wheelchair-users. Partnership principles (i.e. norms or values) and strategies (i.e. observable actions) were extracted and analyzed using directed qualitative content analysis.

Results: We included 39 articles about SCI (n = 13), stroke (n = 15), multiple sclerosis (n = 5), amputation (n = 2), cerebral palsy (n = 2), Parkinson's disease (n = 1), and wheelchair users (n = 1). We extracted 110 principles and synthesized them into 13 overarching principles. Principles related to building and maintaining relationships between researchers and research users were most frequently reported. We identified 32 strategies that could be applied at various phases of the research process and 26 strategies that were specific to a research phase (planning, conduct, or dissemination).

Conclusion: We provided systematic overviews of principles and strategies for research partnerships. These could be used by researchers and research users who want to work in partnership to plan, conduct and/or disseminate their SCI research. The findings informed the development of the new SCI Integrated Knowledge Translation Guiding Principles (www.iktprinciples.com) and will support the implementation of these Principles within the SCI research system.

Keywords: Collaborative research; Integrated knowledge translation; Knowledge syntheses; Principles and strategies; Research partnership; Spinal cord injury; Stakeholder engagement.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Cerebral Palsy*
Humans
Multiple Sclerosis*
Parkinson Disease*
Spinal Cord Injuries*

Grants and funding

This research is supported in part by the IKTR Network Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation Grant (FDN #143237), a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Project Grant (FRN: 156372), a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award for HG (Scholar Award #16910), and by the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (F17–01540). KMS is supported by a Canada Research Chair in Integrated Knowledge Translation in Rehabilitation Sciences. None of the funding bodies had a role in writing this manuscript, or in data collection, analysis or interpretation of the data.