Abstract
Political realities and institutional structures are often ignored when gathering evidence to influence population
health policies. If these policies are to be successful, social science literature on policy change should be
integrated into the population health approach. In this contribution, drawing on the work of John W. Kingdon
and related scholarship, we set out to examine how key components of the policy change literature could
contribute towards the effective development of population health policies. Shaping policy change would
require a realignment of the existing school of thought, where the contribution of population health seems to
end at knowledge translation. Through our critical analysis of selected literature, we extend recommendations
to advance a burgeoning discussion in adopting new approaches to successfully implement evidence-informed
population health policies
