Youth violence prevention in Mexico: A complicated context for policy-making based on evidence synthesis

Erika E. Atienzo is a second year PhD student at the School of Health and Related Research. Before arriving to ScHARR, Erika worked for six years as a researcher in the Reproductive Health Department at the Mexican National Institute of Public Health where she collaborated on several research projects and was also involved in teaching. She is currently a member of the National System of Researchers in Mexico.

The title of Erika's PhD project is: Youth violence prevention in Mexico: A complicated context for policy-making based on evidence synthesis.

The research is focused on the use of evidence synthesis for policy-making in a developing country, using a case study of the prevention of youth violence in Mexico. It will explore the evidence base in this area in Latin America and assess their utility when aiming to incorporate research into policy-making to prevent youth violence in Mexico. Her research will involve methods for evidence synthesis and a primary qualitative study with policy-makers and decision-takers.

Click this link to view a poster about Erika's research to date.

In this poster Erika presents some preliminary findings of two systematic reviews that form the basis of her PhD research. After a comprehensive search of manuscripts, this research shows that evidence on interventions to prevent youth violence for Latin America is limited and relies on non-rigorously designed studies. This scenario presents a challenge for the process of decision making in Mexico based on the use of conventional methods for evidence synthesis.

A profile of Erika’s PhD research aim and some of her previous publications can be found here.