Do Canadian civil servants care about the health of populations?

Objectives: This article describes Canadian civil servants' awareness of, attitudes toward, and self-reported use of ideas about the determinants of health.

Methods: Federal and provincial civil servants in departments of finance, labor, social services, and health were surveyed.

Results: With civil servants in finance departments a notable exception, most Canadian civil servants see the health of populations as a relevant outcome for their sectors.

Examining the role of health services research in public policymaking.

Conceptual, methodological, and practical issues await those who seek to understand how to make better use of health services research in developing public policy. Some policies and some policymaking processes may lend themselves particularly well to being informed by research. Different conclusions about the extent to which policymaking is informed by research may arise from different views about what constitutes health services research (is it citable research or any professional social inquiry that can aid in problem solving?) or different views about what constitutes research use (is it explicit uses of research only, or does it also include tacit knowledge or the positions of stakeholders when they are informed by research and are influential in the policymaking process?).