Knowledge Mobilization Strategies for Intimate Partner Violence Research in Canada: A Mixed-Method Study

Knowledge mobilization (KMb) involves sharing research evidence with knowledge users to effect change. Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been deemed a public health crisis, or epidemic, and although IPV researchers generate significant knowledge, the extent and methods by which they mobilize it beyond academic settings are less known.This study examines the KMb efforts of Canadian IPV researchers, examining the formats, strategies, and mechanisms they used to share their findings with practice, policy, and public audiences as well as what aspects of IPV (e.g., intervention results, descriptive findings) they mobilized from their research. Using a mixed-methods analytical approach, an environmental scan was conducted to identify non-academic, publicly available KMb products by Canadian IPV researchers, with articles published from 2020 to 2022. Characteristics of the KMb products and the associated research were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. In total, 58 products were identified,including news articles, infographics, blog posts, and reports, The majority took the form of news articles (53%) with products being predominantly disseminated through institutional/organizational websites (36%) and news websites (33%). Common topics included IPV interventions and understanding IPV (e.g., prevalence, types and impacts etc.) with products focused on IPV interventions being primarily from one author 87.5% (n = 12). While some KMb strategies, such as news media, are actively used, others are not, leaving significant scope to innovate and evaluate how knowledge to address IPV is shared beyond the academy, and especially to enhance IPV policy and practice.