Table 2.

Largest competency gaps in evidence-based decision making reported in four national public health workforce surveys

Gap rank a	2008 State health department staff (n =441)	2013 State health department staff (n =904)	2012 Local public health directors (n =517)	2013 Local public health program managers (n =332)
1	Economic evaluation	Economic evaluation	Economic evaluation	Economic evaluation
2	Communicating research to policymakers	Communicating research to policymakers	Evaluation designs	Communicating research to policymakers
3	Adapting interventions	Adapting interventions	Communicating research to policymakers	Evaluation designs
4	Evaluation designs	Evaluation designs	Adapting interventions	Adapting interventions

^aRank based on order of largest mean gap scores as calculated by subtracting rated availability from importance of EBDM competencies. A rank of “1” indicates the competency which had the largest mean gap.