Study title

Objectives: We sought to work collaboratively with public health stakeholders who use evidence in their work to identify practical ways that cross-sectoral data sharing and linkage could be used to best effect to improve health and reduce health inequalities. Methods: We undertook three sequential stakeholder workshops with participants from local and central government, public health teams, Health and Social Care Partnerships, the third sector, organisations which support data-intensive research, and public representatives from across Scotland. The workshops were informed by a scoping review on use of evidence in public health policy and practice, searching Medline, Scopus, SSCI, and key institutional websites, and by three case studies of existing cross-sectoral linkage projects. Details of data collection: The data collection comprises de-identified transcripts of stakeholder workshops and a copy of the visual map produced as part of the workshops. Stakeholders comprised people We held workshops to bring together people working in public health practice; in policy sectors potentially relevant to health; and in information governance, infrastructure and/or support for data and research; as well as a number of public representatives. Potential attendees were identified through a stakeholder mapping exercise with the project advisory group, followed by review of relevant organisational websites and advice from gatekeeper organisations such as Administrative Data Scotland.Background Secondary data from different sectors can provide unique insights into the social, environmental, economic, and political determinants of health. This is especially pertinent in the context of whole-systems approaches to public health, which typically combine cross-sectoral collaboration with the application of theoretical insights from systems science. However, sharing and linkage of data between different sectors to inform healthy public policy is still relatively rare. Previous...