Community-Based Participatory Research: Incorporating the Integral Voice of Community in Study Design

• Published in: The patient : patient-centered outcomes research Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 661 - 663
• Main Authors: Pizarro, Desirree, Richards, Nicole K., Coots, Susan, Crockett, Elizabeth, Morley, Christopher P., Levandowski, Brooke A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Birth control; Childrens health; Community; Data analysis; Focus groups; Health Administration; Health Economics; Maternal & child health; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Participatory research; Pharmacoeconomics and Health Outcomes; Pregnancy; Public Health; Quality of Life Research; Research Letter; Revisions; Verbal communication; Womens health; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 1178-1653; 1178-1661
• DOI: 10.1007/s40271-019-00359-w

While the literature includes examples of successful CBPR research [3-5], challenges inherent in CBPR partnerships [5-7], and articles describing the critical importance of components such as trust and relationship building within the context of research [5-7], this research letter fills the gap by providing methodological examples of activities that can be utilized in the context of CBPR to enhance research aims. 1Partnerships Building on over a decade of maternal and child health programming initiated by the county health department and involving community members [8-11], a study utilizing a CBPR framework was developed to identify patient and provider intervention options needed to enhance contraceptive counseling towards increasing contraceptive method selection and use in Syracuse, New York, USA. The ing CAB of 70 different participants, including public health students, healthcare providers, public health H providers and educators, and community members, who met ten times during the 3-year research project. 2Obtaining Community Input The second CAB meeting included 11 participants and four study team members, and concentrated on obtaining feedback on the focus group question guides. In the question guides asking women about how they engage in contraceptive conversations, and how to improve patient-provider communication, the research team originally asked, "Have you ever talked to a health care provider about preventing pregnancy?" followed by several follow-up questions including "How did it go?", "What went well?", and "What didn't go well?" CAB members made several revisions to this question, including the addition of the follow up question "If you had questions, were they answered in a way that was helpful?" The addition of this question was based on CAB members' contextual understanding that many young women in the community feel that their questions are met with unhelpful responses from providers. Data collection that yields insights into the public health question of interest is an indicator that study participants felt at ease during focus group discussions, which may have allowed for greater sharing of experiences.