title: Mapping the use of research to support strategies tackling maternal and child health inequities: evidence from six countries in Africa and Latin America.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Striving to foster collaboration among countries suffering from maternal and child health (MCH) inequities, the MASCOT project mapped and analyzed the use of research in strategies tackling them in 11 low- and middle-income countries. This article aims to present the way in which research influenced MCH policies and programs in six of these countries - three in Africa and three in Latin America.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative research using a thematic synthesis narrative process was used to identify and describe who is producing what kind of research, how research is funded, how inequities are approached by research and policies, the countries' research capacities, and the type of evidence base that MCH policies and programs use. Four tools were designed for these purposes: an online survey for researchers, a semi-structured interview with decision makers, and two content analysis guides: one for policy and programs documents and one for scientific articles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three modalities of research utilization were observed in the strategies tackling MCH inequities in the six included countries - instrumental, conceptual and symbolic. Instrumental utilization directly relates the formulation and contents of the strategies with research results, and is the least used within the analyzed policies and programs. Even though research is considered as an important input to support decision making and most of the analyzed countries count five or six relevant MCH research initiatives, in most cases, the actual impact of research is not clearly identifiable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While MCH research is increasing in low- and middle-income countries, the impact of its outcomes on policy formulation is low. We did not identify a direct relationship between the nature of the financial support organizations and the kind of evidence utilization within the policy process. There is still a visible gap between researchers and policymakers regarding their different intentions to link evidence and decision making processes.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Sistemas de Salud, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, México. emily.vargas@gmail.com.|National Institute of Health, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia. emily.vargas@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Sistemas de Salud, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, México. victor.becerril@insp.mx.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Becerril-Montekio
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Sistemas de Salud, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, México. miguel.gonzalezblock@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Miguel Ángel
authors.initials: MÁ
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Block
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. akweongo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Akweongo
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. cynthiaafedi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Cynthia N A
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Hazel
authors.affiliation: Independent consultant, Maputo, Mozambique. fcuembelo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria de Fatima
authors.initials: Mde F
authors.lastname: Cuembelo
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Witwatersrand, Republic of South Africa. limbanif@yahoo.com.uk.|Dignities International, Research Department, Knowledge Translation Unit, Zomba, Malawi. limbanif@yahoo.com.uk.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Limbani
authors.affiliation: University of Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo, Brazil. wmbernardo@usp.br.
authors.forename: Wanderley
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bernardo
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. fmunoz@med.uchile.cl.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Muñoz
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000067576:Child Health; D003906:Developing Countries; D006291:Health Policy; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007843:Latin America; D000068097:Maternal Health; D000068101:Maternal-Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012106:Research / Q000458:organization & administration*