Awareness of evidence-based practices by organizations in a publicly funded smoking cessation network

This research examines the awareness of evidence-based practices by the public organizations that fund services in the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC). NAQC is a large, publicly funded, goal-directed "whole network," spanning both Canada and the United States, working to get people to quit smoking. Building on prior research on the dissemination and diffusion of innovation and evidence-based practices, and considering differences between network ties that are homophilous versus instrumental, we found that awareness of evidence-based practices was highest for quitline funders that were strongly connected directly to researchers and indirectly to the network administrative organization, controlling for quitline spending per capita and decision-making locus of control. The findings support the importance of maintaining instrumental (a technical/rational argument) rather than homophilous ties for acquisition of evidence-based practice knowledge. The findings also offer ideas for how public networks might be designed and governed to enhance the likelihood that the organizations in the network are better aware of what evidence-based practices exist.