Health Companion Project: A community-based participatory research model for health promotion in Iran

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-172
Author(s):  
Behrouz Yazdanpanah ◽  
Mitra Safari ◽  
Farahosadat Bahreini ◽  
Farzad Vafaei ◽  
Mohsen Salari ◽  
...  

A 4-year (2008–2011) community-based participatory research was implemented in the Kohgiloyeh and Boyerahmad province, Iran. A steering committee was established from academics, policy makers, health officials, and representatives of health sectors. This committee selected six regions within Boyerahmad and Dena counties based on administrative divisions. Health companions consisting of stakeholders, academics, local leaders, health providers, and public representatives were established to guide the project in each region. The health companion groups were enabled by attending workshops dealing with need assessment, priority setting, and research methodology. Health companion groups adopted a Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) methodology including community mobilization for data collection, health priority setting, developing of a comprehensive intervention plan, and evaluation. A list of main health issues and their priorities for each region was provided. Subsequently, research topics were determined and six surveys and intervention programs were planned and implemented. After intervention most of top priority health risk factors were decreased and the preventive programs that targeted risk factors were increased significantly. This project is found to be an effective approach for building stronger partnerships between researchers and community members for the development of effective solutions for local health concerns and promote public health.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elijah Bisung ◽  
Susan J. Elliott ◽  
Bernard Abudho ◽  
Diana M. Karanja ◽  
Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the use of community based participatory research (CBPR) tools for understanding environment and health issues and facilitating social action. This paper explores the application and utility of photovoice for understanding water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) behaviours and catalysing community led solutions to change behaviours. Between June and August 2013, photovoice was conducted with eight (8) women in Usoma, a lakeshore community in Western Kenya with a follow-up community meeting (baraza) in May 2014 to discuss findings with the community members and government officials. In the first part of the study, photovoice one-on-one interviews were used to explore local perceptions and practices around water-health linkages and how the ecological and socio-political environment shapes these perceptions and practices. This paper, which is the second component of the study, uses photovoice group discussions to explore participants’ experiences with and (re)action to the photographs and the photovoice project. The findings illustrate that photovoice was an effective CBPR methodology for understanding behaviours, creating awareness, facilitating collective action, and engaging with local government and local health officials at the water-health nexus.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamisu M. Salihu ◽  
Abraham A. Salinas-Miranda ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
DeAnne Turner ◽  
Estrellita Lo Berry ◽  
...  

<em>Background</em>. Providing practitioners with an intuitive measure for priority setting that can be combined with diverse data collection methods is a necessary step to foster accountability of the decision-making process in community settings. Yet, there is a lack of easy-to-use, but methodologically robust measures, that can be feasibly implemented for reliable decision-making in community settings. To address this important gap in community based participatory research (CBPR), the purpose of this study was to demonstrate the utility, applicability, and validation of a community priority index in a community-based participatory research setting. <br /><em>Design and Methods</em>. Mixed-method study that combined focus groups findings, nominal group technique with six key informants, and the generation of a Community Priority Index (CPI) that integrated community importance, changeability, and target populations. Bootstrapping and simulation were performed for validation. <br /><em>Results</em>. For pregnant mothers, the top three highly important and highly changeable priorities were: stress (CPI=0.85; 95%CI: 0.70, 1.00), lack of affection (CPI=0.87; 95%CI: 0.69, 1.00), and nutritional issues (CPI=0.78; 95%CI: 0.48, 1.00). For non-pregnant women, top priorities were: low health literacy (CPI=0.87; 95%CI: 0.69, 1.00), low educational attainment (CPI=0.78; 95%CI: 0.48, 1.00), and lack of self-esteem (CPI=0.72; 95%CI: 0.44, 1.00). For children and adolescents, the top three priorities were: obesity (CPI=0.88; 95%CI: 0.69, 1.00), low self-esteem (CPI=0.81; 95%CI: 0.69, 0.94), and negative attitudes toward education (CPI=0.75; 95%CI: 0.50, 0.94). <br /><em>Conclusions</em>. This study demonstrates the applicability of the CPI as a simple and intuitive measure for priority setting in CBPR.


Author(s):  
Tracey Marie Barnett

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) embraces a partnership approach to research that equitably involves community members, organizational representatives, social workers, and researchers in all aspects of the research process. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community and has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change. It is community based in the sense that community members become part of the research team and researchers become engaged in the activities of the community. Community–researcher partnerships allow for a blending of values and expertise, promoting co-learning and capacity building among all partners, and integrating and achieving a balance between research and action for the mutual benefit of all partners. Various terms have been used to describe this research, including participatory action research (PAR), action research (AR), community based research (CBR), collaborative action research (CAR), anti-oppressive research, and feminist research.


2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-26
Author(s):  
Sara Curtin-Mosher ◽  
Elizabeth Leo

This paper speaks to a potential dilemma between the R and the CBP of Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) within the context of a partnership called the Asociación de Reforestación de Ambos Nogales (ARAN). We focus on the relationship between students and educators from the University of Arizona (UA) and two high schools from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico that constitute part of this organization. ARAN has been influenced by but not restricted to a framework of CBPR where community members and academics engage in all aspects of research.


Author(s):  
Erin E. Michalak ◽  
Kathleen Lane ◽  
Rachelle Hole ◽  
Steven J. Barnes ◽  
Nasreen Khatri ◽  
...  

The Collaborative RESearch Team to study psychosocial factors in bipolar disorder (CREST.BD) is a multidisciplinary network dedicated to advancing science and practice around psychosocial issues associated with bipolar disorder (BD), improving the care and wellness of people living with bipolar disorder, and strengthening services and supports for these individuals. CREST.BD specializes in community-based participatory research, in which research is conducted as a partnership between researchers and community members. This article describes the evolution of the CREST.BD network and CREST.BD’s commitment to community-based participatory research in bipolar disorder research. Examples of CREST.BD projects using community-based participatory research to study stigma, quality of life, psychosocial interventions, and creativity in bipolar disorder are highlighted, and opportunities and challenges of engaging in community-based participatory research in bipolar disorder specifically and the mental health field more broadly are discussed. This article demonstrates how CBPR can be used to enhance the relevance of research practices and products through community engagement, and how community-based participatory research can enrich knowledge exchange and mobilization. 


Author(s):  
Tarun Reddy Katapally ◽  
Sylvia Abonyi ◽  
Jo-Ann Episkenew ◽  
Vivian Ramsden ◽  
Chandima Karunanayake ◽  
...  

 Assess, Redress, Re-assess: Addressing Disparities in Respiratory Health Among First Nations is an ongoing community-based participatory research initiative involving two First Nations communities in Saskatchewan. The initiative’s rationale is grounded in the ethos of transformative community-based participatory research and facilitated through integrated knowledge translation with the aim of building community capacity. The initiative’s goal was to engage community members to actively participate in all research phases, from the development of the research questions to dissemination of results and evaluation of community-chosen interventions that evolved from the results. After baseline assessment of predictors and indicators of respiratory health, a program of integrated knowledge translation was adopted. As part of this program, a community-researcher collaboration was put in place that produced two knowledge translation symposia. The two symposia have brought together First Nations community members, interdisciplinary researchers, federal and provincial policy makers, and multiple Aboriginal organizational stakeholders. The symposia provided a pathway for knowledge synthesis and sharing to ultimately integrate knowledge into practice and enable First Nations’ community capacity building in addressing and redressing critical respiratory health issues. This article delineates the processes involved in developing this model of integrated knowledge translation and highlights the continuing engagement with the participating communities supported by Knowledge Translation (KT) Symposia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Calva ◽  
Rebecca A. Matthew ◽  
Pamela Orpinas

The value of community assessments depends on the researchers’ ability to reach a diverse and representative sample of participants. This process is particularly challenging when assessing the health and well-being of vulnerable populations that are reticent to participate in research because of demographic and sociopolitical factors. One such group is Latinxs (the gender-neutral version of Latinos or Latinas) of mixed immigration status who live in low-income, socially and geographically isolated enclaves in the Southeast. Framed by community-based participatory research and social marketing theories, this study describes practical strategies for health researchers, practitioners, and advocates seeking to engage and build trusting relationship within U.S. Latinx communities. First, identify and leverage points of entry to different segments of the communities of interest by engaging meaningful gatekeepers from different sections of the population and searching for places where potential participants gather. Second, reduce the burden of assessments by using incentives and creating intentional reciprocity. Third, establish critical, long-lasting trust with community members, leaders, and allies by adapting data collection procedures, ensuring confidentiality, engaging bilingual facilitators, and most important, being present with and for the community. Finally, presenting the findings back to the community can increase the ownership of the process.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabra L Katz-Wise ◽  
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon ◽  
Laura M Bogart ◽  
Milagros C Rosal ◽  
Diane Ehrensaft ◽  
...  

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) involves community members collaborating with academic investigators in each step of the research process. CBPR may be especially useful for research involving marginalized populations with unique perspectives and needs. In this paper, we discuss successes and challenges of using a CBPR approach for the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project, a longitudinal mixed-methods study to examine how the family environment affects the health and well-being of transgender and gender nonconforming youth. We describe considerations for using a CBPR approach with this population, including defining the community of transgender and gender nonconforming youth and families, engaging the community in the research process, managing conflicting agendas for community partner meetings, addressing insider/outsider status of the researchers, resolving researcher/community tensions regarding data collection tools, integrating academic and community members into a cohesive research team, developing safety plans to address participant suicidality disclosures, and differentiating the role of academics as researchers vs. advocates. We conclude by sharing lessons learned, which can inform future research to address the needs of transgender and gender nonconforming youth and families.


2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Luis Marcos ◽  
M. Rosales ◽  
Alexander Rödlach ◽  
John Stone

Applied anthropologists value participatory action research (PAR). In 2008, the Society for Applied Anthropology bestowed the 2008 Bronislaw Malinowski Award upon Orlando Fals-Borda, who is best known for developing the theory and methodology of this approach and his leadership in social and political activism on behalf of and with marginalized communities. Fals-Borda argues that PAR encourages value-driven and collaboratively-conducted research that transforms the relationship between marginalized communities and the organizations that serve them so as to improve their socio-political situation (Fals-Borda and Rahman 1991). Comparably, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of the US Department of Health and Human Services has recognized the value of community-based participatory research for both researchers and the community being studied (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 2004:1). The Agency has emphasized the importance of academic professionals and community members working together in community-based participatory research as equal partners in developing, implementing, and using research findings to improve local health and healthcare. Community-based participatory research and participatory action research share many features.


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