A wide range of reasons have been put forward for involving patients and the public in research. These reasons tend to fall into two categories: reasons of principle / policy, and reasons of research quality / relevance.

Reasons of principle or policy

• As citizens, patients and the public have a democratic right to influence research that is intended to benefit their lives and the health of the nation as a whole
• As taxpayers and donors, patients and the public have a right to influence research that is paid for through taxation or from charitable donations
• The 2001 Department of Health Research Governance Framework introduced the policy requirement that "Relevant service users and carers or their representative groups should be involved wherever possible in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of research." Patient and public involvement is further encouraged by the 2006 government health research strategy Best Research for Best Health
• Increasingly, research funders require grant applicants to make provisions for patient and public involvement in study design.

Reasons of research quality or relevance

• Patients and the public can help to ensure that research questions that are identified and prioritised are important to them and therefore relevant to health care and public health as a whole
• Patients and the public can help to ensure that research includes outcomes that they consider important
• Patients and the public can help prepare patient information material that is accessible and comprehensible to lay readers (and so is more likely to pass smoothly through ethical review)
• Patients and the public can help with the recruitment of their peers for research projects
• Research subjects will sometimes be more co-operative or open with researchers who are also patients than with 'professional' researchers
• People who use services can help to disseminate the results of research and work to ensure that changes are implemented

Finally, involvement in research, done well, can help empower people who use services.

A key issue in discussions of patient and public involvement is that the evidence for 'impact' is regarded by some as anecdotal - no systematic or rigorous review of the influence of patient and public involvement in health research has been conducted to date. INVOLVE has published a paper that discusses this issue (see below) and has also commissioned a literature review that is currently in progress.

Further resources on this topic

INVOLVE: Making a Difference (position paper on the need for evidence for user involvement)