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Contextual analysis and the success of translational research

  • Practice and Public Health Policies
  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

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Abstract

The success of translational research can ultimately be judged by the degree to which it reduces the incidence and prevalence of psychological, behavioral, and physical disorders and the major factors influencing them. In our view, we currently place insufficient emphasis on assessing our impact on the social determinants of disorders. As a result, we are failing to affect the incidence and prevalence of critical disorders. Moreover, translational research fails to take into account the full range of interventions that could significantly reduce the incidence and prevalence of our most pressing disorders. These include policy changes, media, and broad cultural change movements. In this paper, we discuss the momentous achievements the tobacco prevention movement made over the last half-century, describe how the lessons gleaned from this success can apply to other prevention efforts, and contrast this success with progress made in battling other major public health concerns. We call for an expansion of the translational research agenda to develop and evaluate broader and more comprehensive strategies to affect well-being in entire populations.

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Acknowledgments

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA021726-01A1) provided financial support for the completion of the work on this manuscript. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIAAA or the National Institutes of Health. The authors would like to thank Christine Cody for her editorial input.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oregon Research Institute, 1776 Millrace Drive, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Anthony Biglan PhD

  2. Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Michael E. Levin PhD

Authors
  1. Anthony Biglan PhD
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  2. Michael E. Levin PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthony Biglan PhD.

Ethics declarations

All procedures of the funded project, including the informed consent process, were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national).

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Implications

Research: Researchers will be able to expand their research agenda to develop and evaluate broader, more comprehensive strategies that can affect well-being in the entire populations they encounter.

Practice: Practitioners will begin to pay critical attention to assessing our impact on the social determinants of critical disorders, which will have positive effects on the incidence and prevalence of these disorders.

Policy: The momentous achievements the tobacco prevention movement made over the last half-century can apply to other prevention efforts, policies, and social movements

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Biglan, A., Levin, M.E. Contextual analysis and the success of translational research. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 6, 160–166 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0362-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0362-8

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