Testing Strategies to Improve Substance Misuse Prevention Research Use in State Policy Contexts

If science is to inform effective substance misuse prevention policy and ultimately improve public health, the field needs an effective strategy for directly supporting policymakers' use of research evidence, yet our field lacks an evidence-based model designed for this purpose. Accordingly, a state-level randomized controlled trial (N = 30 states) of a formal, theory-based approach for appropriately supporting policymakers' use of scientific evidence--known as the Research-to-Policy Collaboration (RPC) Model is proposed. This work has the potential to reduce population-level substance misuse by improving the use of scientific information in policymaking, thus increasing the availability of evidence-based prevention programs and policies.

NCT Number	NCT06856148
Lead Sponsor	Penn State University Collaborators: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Conditions	Substance Abuse, Substance Use Disorders, Prevention, Legislation, Use of Research Evidence
Enrollment	300 participants
Start Date	2023-04-01
Primary Completion	2027-03-31 (estimated)
Study Completion	2027-03-31 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2025-03-06