LibGuides: Health Equity: Community-Based Participatory Research

What is Community-Based Participatory Research?

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a research approach where researchers and community members engage as equal partners in all aspects of the research process. The aim is to improve community health and address health disparities by combining knowledge and action for social change.

Community-Based Participatory Research | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2020.
Author Michael Duke provides a detail introduction and explanation to this specific research approach, including its history, ethical concerns, the barriers, as well as some suggested readings.
CBPR Glossary | The Detroit Urban Research Center
A list of terms that are often used in the context of community-based participatory research and are defined based on CBPR principles.
Using community-based participatory research to address health disparities | Health Promotion Practice, 2006
More than a set of research methods, CBPR is an orientation to research that focuses on relationships between academic and community partners.

Books:

Communities in Action by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Committee on Community-Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the United States; Alina Baciu (Editor); Yamrot Negussie (Editor); Amy Geller (Editor); James N. Weinstein (Editor) In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
ISBN: 9780309452991
Publication Date: 2017
Community-Based Participatory Research for Health by Nina Wallerstein (Editor); Bonnie Duran (Editor); John G. Oetzel (Editor); Meredith Minkler (Editor) The definitive guide to CBPR concepts and practice, updated and expanded Community-Based Participatory Research for Health: Advancing Health and Social Equity provides a comprehensive reference for this rapidly growing field in participatory and community-engaged research. Hailed as effective by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CBPR and CEnR represent the link between researchers and community and lead to improved public health outcomes. This book provides practitioner-focused guidance on CBPR and CEnR to help public health professionals, students, and practitioners from multiple other clinical, planning, education, social work, and social science fields to successfully work towards social and health equity. With a majority of new chapters, the book provides a thorough overview of CBPR history, theories of action and participatory research, emerging trends of knowledge democracy, and promising practices. Drawn from a ten-year research effort, this new material is organized around the CBPR Conceptual Model, illustrating the importance of social context, promising partnering practices, and the added value of community and other stakeholder engagement for intervention development and research design. Partnership evaluation, measures, and outcomes are highlighted, with a revised section on policy outcomes, including global health case studies. For the first time, this updated edition also includes access to the companion website, featuring lecture slides of conceptual and partnership evaluation-focused chapters, with resources from appendices to help bring CBPR concepts and practices directly into the classroom. Proven effective year after year, CBPR has become a critically important framework for public health, and this book provides clear reference for all aspects of the practice. Readers will: Examine the latest research on CPBR, and incorporate new insights into practice Understand the history and theoretical basis of CPBR, and why it has been so effective Reflect on critical issues of racism, power, and privilege; trust development; ethical practice within and beyond IRBs; and cultural humility Learn new partnership evaluation and collective reflection strategies, including measures and metrics, to enhance their own practice for improved health and social equity outcomes
ISBN: 1119258863
Publication Date: 2018

CBPR in Action

Community Based Participatory Research and Human-Centered Design Principles to Advance Hearing Health Equity | Ear and Hearing, 2022 Inclusive and equitable research is an ethical imperative. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) as well as human-centered design are approaches that center partnership between community members and academic researchers. Together, academic-community research teams iteratively study community priorities, collaboratively develop ethical study designs, and co-create innovations that are accessible and meaningful to the community partners while advancing science. The foundation of the CBPR approach is reliant on its core principles of equity, co-learning, shared power in decision-making, reciprocity, and mutual benefit. While the CBPR approach has been used extensively in public health and other areas of healthcare research, the approach is relatively new to audiology, otolaryngology, and hearing health research. Recent applications of CBPR have been framed broadly within the theoretical positions of the socio-ecological model for a systems-level approach to community-engaged research and the Health Services Utilization model within health services and disparities research using CBPR. Utilizing human-centered design strategies can work in tandem with a CBPR approach to engage a wide range of people in the research process and move toward the development of innovative yet feasible solutions. Leveraging the principles of CBPR is an intricate and dynamic process, and may not be a fit for some topics, some researchers’ skillsets, and may be beyond some projects’ resources. When implemented skillfully and authentically, CBPR can be of benefit by elevating and empowering community voices and cultural perspectives historically marginalized in society and underrepresented within research. The purpose of the current article is to advance an understanding of the CBPR approach, along with principles from human-centered design, in the context of research aimed to advance equity and access in hearing healthcare. The literature is reviewed to provide an introduction for auditory scientists to the CBPR approach and human-centered design, including discussion of the underlying principles of CBPR and where it fits along a community-engaged continuum, theoretical and evaluation frameworks, as well as applications within auditory research. With a focus on health equity, this review of CBPR in the study of hearing healthcare emphasizes how this approach to research can help to advance inclusion, diversity, and access to innovation.
Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership with Faith-Based Organizations to Address Obesity and Glucose Control | Public Health Nursing, 2022 Objectives: To explore the lived (narrative) experience of obesity and/or diabetes mellitus within focus groups consisting of individuals and community support persons residing in Genesee County, Michigan. Design: Qualitative study, using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodology to design and conduct focus group interviews. Sample: Nineteen participants from faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Genesee County (74.5% Caucasian, 3.0% Hispanic American). Measurements: Semi-structured narrative focus group interviews, using thematic coding and qualitative analysis software (Otter.com). Results: Participants from diverse FBOs revealed barriers that prevent them from reaching their weight goals and preventing or controlling diabetes. A shared theme included the concern that providers do not actively inquire about patient concerns at appointments, and they fail to offer practical strategies beyond pharmaceutical interventions. Conclusion: Focus group interviews with community residents revealed issues and barriers patients and their support persons face in health care experiences. Utilizing CBPR (methodology) is an opportunity for advanced practice nurses (health care professionals) to co-create strategies and interventions with the community that can assist them in successfully reaching their weight loss and diabetes prevention goals.
Community-Based Participatory Research Program | NIH, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities The NIMHD Community-Based Participatory Research Program (CBPR) supports collaborative interventions that involve scientific researchers and community members to address diseases and conditions disproportionately affecting health disparity populations. Recognizing the strength of each partner, scientific researchers across multiple disciplines and community members collaborate on all aspects of the project, which may include a needs assessment, planning, research intervention design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of community-level interventions. The community is involved in the CBPR program as an equal partner with the scientists. This helps ensure that interventions created are responsive to the community’s needs.
Linking Science and Policy Through Community-Based Participatory Research to Study and Address Health Disparities | American Journal of Public Health, 2010 With its commitment to balancing research and action, community-based participatory research (CBPR) is well suited to efforts at the intersections of science, practice, and policy to eliminate health disparities. Drawing on a larger study, we use 2 case studies to highlight the role of CBPR in helping achieve policy changes promoting, respectively, access to healthy foods (Bayview, San Francisco, CA) and higher air quality standards (Harlem, New York, NY). We then present facilitating factors and challenges faced across all 10 case studies from the larger study. Although we underscore the importance of analyzing contribution rather than claiming attribution in policy-focused work, CBPR's attention to both the distributive and the procedural justice necessary for eliminating health disparities may make it a particularly relevant approach in such work.
Public Libraries as Key Partners for Advancing Health Equity | American Journal of Public Health, 2021;111(1):40-42 Public libraries are emerging in key roles for improving the health of underserved communities. We describe a budding academic–library research partnership formed between Northwestern University and the CPL to equip the city with resources and tools to reach diverse populations who seek health and wellness information, including information and resources about clinical trials and preventive services. We put forth this example to encourage similar partnerships with public libraries to address identified community needs.
Reducing disparities in cancer screening and prevention through community-based participatory research partnerships with local libraries: A Comprehensive Dynamic Trial | American Journal of Community Psychology, 2017 Reduction of cancer-related disparities requires strategies that link medically underserved communities to preventive care. In this community-based participatory research project, a public library system brought together stakeholders to plan and undertake programs to address cancer screening and risk behavior.
Strategies To Empower Communities To Reduce Health Disparities | Health Affairs, 2016 Community-based participatory research is a promising approach to reducing health disparities. It empowers individuals and communities to become the major players in solving their own health problems. We discuss the use of community-based participatory research and other strategies to enhance empowerment. We also discuss projects from the Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities that have empowered communities to achieve positive health outcomes aimed at reducing disparities. We offer recommendations to policy makers for involving residents in efforts to achieve health equity.
Supporting New Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships | International Journal Of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2018 Marginalized communities have a documented distrust of research grounded in negative portrayals in the academic literature. Yet, trusted partnerships, the foundation for Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), require time to build the capacity for joint decision-making, equitable involvement of academically trained and community investigators, and co-learning. Trust can be difficult to develop within the short time between a funding opportunity announcement and application submission. Resources to support community- and academic-based investigators’ time to discuss contexts, concerns, integration of expertise and locally acceptable research designs and data collection are limited. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Center for American Indian Resilience and the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative have implemented an internal funding mechanism to support community and academic-based investigators’ travel cost and time to discuss complementary areas of interest and skills and to decide if moving forward with a partnership and a collaborative grant proposal would be beneficial to the community. The rationale and administration of this Community-Campus Partnership Support (CCPS) Program are described and four examples of supported efforts are provided. Centers and training programs frequently fund pilot grants to support junior investigators and/or exploratory research. This CCPS mechanism should be considered as precursor to pilot work, to stimulate partnership building without the pressure of an approaching grant application deadline.
Using a Community-Based Participatory Research Approach to Meaningfully Engage Those with Lived Experience of Diabetes and Homelessness | BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, 2021 Introduction: Participatory research is a study method that engages patients in research programs, ideally from study design through to dissemination. It is not commonly used in diabetes health services research. Our objectives were to describe the process and challenges of conducting a participatory research project and to highlight the experiences of both patient co-researchers and academic researchers. Research design and methods: We recruited people with lived experience of homelessness (PWLEH) and diabetes in Toronto, Canada to become patient co-researchers. They were asked to commit to attending biweekly meetings. We undertook two major research projects: concept mapping to choose a research focus; and photovoice to explore accessing healthy food while homeless. We used a convergent mixed-methods design to evaluate their experience. Results: A diverse group of eight PWLEH had an average attendance of 82% over 21 meetings-despite this success, we encountered a number of challenges of conducting this research: funding, ethics approval and recruitment were particularly difficult. Group members reported that participation improved their ability to self-advocate in their diabetes care and provided them with tangible skills and social benefits. Group members stated that they valued being involved in all aspects of the research, in particular knowledge translation activities, including advocating for nutritious food at shelters; presenting to stakeholders; and meeting with policymakers. Conclusions: The use of participatory research methods enables academic researchers to support community members in pursuing research that is pertinent to them and which has a positive impact. In our study, co-researchers contributed in meaningful ways and also valued the experience.

Resources for Community Partners and Research Participants

Catalyzing Better Health Outcomes for Central Texas Communities | Dell Medical School
A personalized consultation & collaboration provided by Dell Medical School's Division of Community Engagement and Health Equity that provides community expertise and collaborations with a broad range of individuals and organizations to address the social drivers of health through education, community engagement, research and innovation.
Community Engagement Studio Toolkit | Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research
The Community Engagement Studio is a consultative model and a quick way for researchers to get community or patient input on the development, implementation or dissemination of a research project.
Developing a Community Advisory Board for Research Toolkit | SCCTSI
This toolkit is intended to assist researchers in navigating the processes of developing and establishing a community advisory board (CAB) for their research studies.
Toolkit for engaging diverse communities to plan and implement public health programs | Partners for Advancing Health Equity
This toolkit is for anyone who wants to work with communities for a public health program. This includes community leaders, researchers, project leaders, and communicators.