A community-based research approach to promoting resources for breastfeeding families

The objective of this article is to introduce the concept of community-based participatory research as a means to understand barriers to cochlear implant access racially minoritized populations. Black adults living in the United States experience unique barriers to cochlear implantation. Community-based research approaches can be used to understand and address these barriers. The Memphis SOUND Project is a community-based research initiative that seeks to address hearing health disparities by examining utilization of hearing healthcare among Black adults. Preliminary findings introduce motivators and barriers related to CI intervention in this population. This Memphis SOUND Project provides valuable insights to the benefits of community-based research in understanding and addressing CI utilization disparities.

Tourism has been indicated as an economic alternative to alleviate the burdens of human–wildlife conflicts. Our objective was to investigate the effects of community-based tourism and research on traditional communities’ interactions with jaguars. This study was carried out in Mamirauá Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon, where a community-based tourism initiative operates and community-based research projects take place. One hundred and two semi-structured interviews were conducted in local communities between February 2020 and November 2021. General linear models were used to test if involvement with tourism or community-based research affected the measured variables. Where tourism was present, tolerance toward jaguars was higher. Areas where tourism and research were present had more positive attitudes toward jaguars, as well as a lower intention to kill jaguars. Our findings suggest that community-based tourism-related activities and research projects have had a positive effect on local human-jaguar relationships, improving tolerance and attitudes toward jaguars.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Community-based research has gained increasing recognition in health research over the last two decades. Such participatory research approaches are lauded for their ability to anchor research in lived experiences, ensuring cultural appropriateness, accessing local knowledge, reaching marginalized communities, building capacity, and facilitating research-to-action. While having these positive attributes, the community-based health research literature is predominantly composed of small projects, using qualitative methods, and set within geographically limited communities. Its use in larger health studies, including clinical trials and cohorts, is limited. We present the Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), a large-scale, multi-site, national, longitudinal quantitative study that has operationalized community-based research in all steps of the research process. Successes, challenges and further considerations are offered.</p> <p><strong>Discussion:</strong> Through the integration of community-based research principles, we have been successful in: facilitating a two-year long formative phase for this study; developing a novel survey instrument with national involvement; training 39 Peer Research Associates (PRAs); offering ongoing comprehensive support to PRAs; and engaging in an ongoing iterative community-based research process. Our community-based research approach within CHIWOS demanded that we be cognizant of challenges managing a large national team, inherent power imbalances and challenges with communication, compensation and volunteering considerations, and extensive delays in institutional processes. It is important to consider the iterative nature of community-based research and to work through tensions that emerge given the diverse perspectives of numerous team members.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Community-based research, as an approach to large-scale quantitative health research projects, is an increasingly viable methodological option. Community-based research has several advantages that go hand-in-hand with its obstacles. We offer guidance on implementing this approach, such that the process can be better planned and result in success.</p>

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Community-based research has gained increasing recognition in health research over the last two decades. Such participatory research approaches are lauded for their ability to anchor research in lived experiences, ensuring cultural appropriateness, accessing local knowledge, reaching marginalized communities, building capacity, and facilitating research-to-action. While having these positive attributes, the community-based health research literature is predominantly composed of small projects, using qualitative methods, and set within geographically limited communities. Its use in larger health studies, including clinical trials and cohorts, is limited. We present the Canadian HIV Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), a large-scale, multi-site, national, longitudinal quantitative study that has operationalized community-based research in all steps of the research process. Successes, challenges and further considerations are offered.</p> <p><strong>Discussion:</strong> Through the integration of community-based research principles, we have been successful in: facilitating a two-year long formative phase for this study; developing a novel survey instrument with national involvement; training 39 Peer Research Associates (PRAs); offering ongoing comprehensive support to PRAs; and engaging in an ongoing iterative community-based research process. Our community-based research approach within CHIWOS demanded that we be cognizant of challenges managing a large national team, inherent power imbalances and challenges with communication, compensation and volunteering considerations, and extensive delays in institutional processes. It is important to consider the iterative nature of community-based research and to work through tensions that emerge given the diverse perspectives of numerous team members.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Community-based research, as an approach to large-scale quantitative health research projects, is an increasingly viable methodological option. Community-based research has several advantages that go hand-in-hand with its obstacles. We offer guidance on implementing this approach, such that the process can be better planned and result in success.</p>

BackgroundOften, research takes place on underserved populations rather than with underserved populations. This approach can further isolate and stigmatize groups that are already made marginalized. What Goes Around is a community-based research project that was led by community members themselves (Peers).Case presentationThis research aimed to implement a community-based research methodology grounded in the leadership and growing research capacity of community researchers and to investigate a topic which community members identified as important and meaningful. Chosen by community members, this project explored how safer sex and safer drug use information is shared informally among Peers. Seventeen community members actively engaged as both community researchers and research participants throughout all facets of the project: inception, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of results. Effective collaboration between community researchers, a community organization, and academics facilitated a research process in which community members actively guided the project from beginning to end.ConclusionsThe methods used in What Goes Around demonstrated that it is not only possible, but advantageous, to draw from community members’ involvement and direction in all stages of a community-based research project. This is particularly important when working with a historically underserved population. Purposeful and regular communication among collaborators, ongoing capacity building, and a commitment to respect the experience and expertise of community members were essential to the project’s success. This project demonstrated that community members are highly invested in both informally sharing information about safer sex and safer drug use and taking leadership roles in directing research that prioritizes harm reduction in their communities.

BackgroundCommunity-based research has gained increasing recognition in health research over the last two decades. Such participatory research approaches are lauded for their ability to anchor research in lived experiences, ensuring cultural appropriateness, accessing local knowledge, reaching marginalized communities, building capacity, and facilitating research-to-action. While having these positive attributes, the community-based health research literature is predominantly composed of small projects, using qualitative methods, and set within geographically limited communities. Its use in larger health studies, including clinical trials and cohorts, is limited. We present the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), a large-scale, multi-site, national, longitudinal quantitative study that has operationalized community-based research in all steps of the research process. Successes, challenges and further considerations are offered.DiscussionThrough the integration of community-based research principles, we have been successful in: facilitating a two-year long formative phase for this study; developing a novel survey instrument with national involvement; training 39 Peer Research Associates (PRAs); offering ongoing comprehensive support to PRAs; and engaging in an ongoing iterative community-based research process. Our community-based research approach within CHIWOS demanded that we be cognizant of challenges managing a large national team, inherent power imbalances and challenges with communication, compensation and volunteering considerations, and extensive delays in institutional processes. It is important to consider the iterative nature of community-based research and to work through tensions that emerge given the diverse perspectives of numerous team members.ConclusionsCommunity-based research, as an approach to large-scale quantitative health research projects, is an increasingly viable methodological option. Community-based research has several advantages that go hand-in-hand with its obstacles. We offer guidance on implementing this approach, such that the process can be better planned and result in success.

This commentary examines community-based research in fragile settings based on the authors’ experience working with Rohingya and host community researchers in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. This iteration of a community-based approach to research focuses on putting community researchers at the center and emphasizes their involvement at each stage of the research process – from design to implementation to analysis – alongside external researchers. Community researchers contribute their expertise to increase understanding of nuances that might otherwise be lost to external researchers. Integral to this approach is building and nurturing the trust of researchers, respondents and community members through innovative means such as an informal “trust network.” Also central to the community-based approach, especially in fragile 1 settings, is a sustained emphasis on community researchers’ learning and skills-building. The commentary article describes methods developed by the Centre for Peace and Justice, Brac University (CPJ), implemented with Rohingya refugees and host community researchers in Cox’s Bazar. The article suggests: Putting community members at the heart of learning and research approaches helps to amplify marginalized voices and emphasize their needs and choices. The political and economic atmosphere of a refugee setting can change rapidly. In such circumstances, community-based research can be vital to policymakers that seek to understand emerging concerns and issues. Community-based experiential education and research approaches hold potential to promote grassroots leadership among refugee youth in situations of protracted displacement. Strengthening the capacities of community researchers is crucial to this approach. Community researchers often lack language skills, especially writing and reading, and translating from local dialects to English or any other preferred language. The acquisition of research skills can also pave a durable and critical pathway toward meaningful youth engagement. Trust and familiarity between refugee interlocutors and researchers require long-term engagement. Creating a culture of mutual respect and dignity is of utmost importance. The community expects researchers to respect their religious beliefs and cultural values. The two-way exchange between community researchers and respondents enhances the learning process and can help discover areas for further inquiry.

This chapter examines the design and implementation of collaborative and participatory approaches to studying literacy development within community settings, using examples from the author’s own community-based research projects, as well as other prominent studies, to develop methodological insights for conducting community-based research. First, the chapter details the theoretical foundation for community-based qualitative research (CBQR), followed by an in-depth discussion of certain issues pertinent to the design and implementation of community-based studies. Finally, there is a review of some of the ways that findings from community-based studies are disseminated and how we can evaluate the quality of these studies.

University of Vermont College of Medicine

Community-based management research is a collaborative effort between management academics and communities in need with the specific goal of achieving social change towards increased justice. Because it should promote and validate joint methods of discovery and community-based sources of knowledge, community-based management research has several unique characteristics which may affect its execution. This paper describes the process of a community-based management research project conducted in low-income communities in a developing country – Bolivia. The paper describes the context, the research methodology, the history preceding the research project, and its various phases. It focuses on the (yet unpublished) process of the community-based research as opposed to its content (which has been published elsewhere). The paper has the objective of sharing lessons learned in hopes that the experience may be helpful to others conducting community-based research in cross-cultural settings.

As a method in arts-based qualitative research, the collage technique has been previously utilized for data generation, elicitation, analysis, and presentation of results. Collage has also been used as a self-reflective, development exercise within community-based research due to its abstract and creative self-exploratory style. Although previously used in research with a variety of populations, there is limited evidence of applying the collage technique with First Nation, Inuit, or Métis peoples, even though many other arts-based methods, such as photovoice, have been used. This article describes the use of biographical collage as part of a community-based research project in a northern Canadian Inuit community. The technique was used as an exercise for building leadership capacity, as an elicitation technique in cross-cultural qualitative interviews, and as a decolonizing process in community-based participatory research. With the description of an in-depth example, this article showcases many benefits of using the collage technique when engaging in cross-cultural community-based research with Inuit.

Scholars have discussed the diverse and heterogeneous nature of people that comprise communities in community-based research (McManamon in Am Antiq 56(1):121–130, 1991; Marshall in World Archaeol 34(2):211–219, 2002; Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Ferguson, in Scarre, Scarre, (eds) The ethics of archaeology: philosophical perspectives on archaeological practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 115–130, 2006; Pyburn, in Okamura, Matuda, (eds) New perspectives in global public archaeology, Springer, New York, pp 29–41, 2011: 31). The divisions within stakeholder groups are highly complex and merit more discussions. By considering community interests and needs, as well as that of different stakeholders, on a case-by-case basis we break down the term community to demonstrate a need for localized approaches to community-based research. Further we discuss some of the differential relationships within community archaeology and roles dictated by legislative requirements and other necessities. Through a community-based research project case study on Inishark and Inishbofin, County Galway Ireland, islands about five miles into the Atlantic Ocean, we explore the different stakeholder groups that comprise island community and the important role archaeologists play in the community-based research.

Do community-based Medical Schools Produce More Community-based Research? A Review of Four Medical Schools in Sudan and Saudi Arabia

Health professionals, including nurses, have been identified as a source of stigma for persons living with HIV (PLWH). Stigma towards PLWH may be predicated on the lack of basic education about HIV in pre-licensure nursing curricular, few opportunities for continuing education in HIV, and persistent discriminatory attitudes about HIV among nurses. From 2011 to 2013, in collaboration with the Canadian Association for Nurses in AIDS Care (CANAC), we developed and implemented a community-based intervention research project entitled A clinical mentorship model for Canadian nurses in HIV care. In previous publications, we reflected on the process, strengths and challenges of conducting this community-based research (CBR) study and we documented the improved knowledge, attitudes, and practices of nurses. Five years after the completion of our CBR study, we re-engaged with some of the participants, with the purpose of assessing whether outcomes had been sustained. We interviewed 15 of the original 56 participants. The data analysis was carried out using thematic analysis. In the current paper we highlight the themes of project design, in particular the CBR design, capacity building and relationships that emerged in our follow-up study. Overall participants looked back on their involvement in the mentorship project as a very positive experience that had opened new, unexpected doors. The participants described many areas of personal and professional growth as a result of their participation. Despite a period of more than five years since the completion of the initial CBR study, the community-based participatory design, the inclusion of PLWH as mentors, and the focus on experiential learning, were seen as fundamental to sustaining the long-term positive impact.

User experience (UX), a common practice in corporate settings, is new for many nonprofit organizations. This case study details a community-based research project between nonprofit staff at a community health center and UX professionals to improve the design and usability of a document designed to help immigrant patients sign up for health insurance. UX professionals may need to adapt and be flexible with their efforts, but can offer valuable skills to community partners. Research questions : (1) What are the information needs and barriers faced by immigrant populations signing up for health insurance? (2) How does a usability study, adapted to meet the needs of immigrant populations, inform the design of a supplemental guidebook about health insurance? (3) What are the challenges and opportunities when engaging in community-based UX research projects? Situating the case : Other community-based research projects in technical communication and UX point to the need for a clear conceptualization of participation, a strong partnership with nonprofits, and the need to develop meaningful and actionable insights. Furthermore, when conducting studies with immigrant populations, the role of the translator on the research team is crucial. Methodology : As a community-based research project focused on the collaborative generation of practical knowledge, we conducted a usability study with 12 participants in two language groups, Chinese and Vietnamese, to evaluate the design and usability of a guidebook designed to provide guidance about enrolling in a health insurance plan. Data were analyzed to identify usability concerns and used to inform a second iteration of the guidebook. About the case : Immigrant populations struggle to sign up for health insurance for a variety of reasons, including limited English and health insurance literacy. As a result, a nonprofit community health center developed a guidebook to support immigrant populations. Version 1 of this guidebook was evaluated in a usability study, with results showing that users struggled to correctly choose a plan, determine their eligibility, and interpret abstract examples. As a result, Version 2 was designed to support the in-person experience, reduce visual complexity, and support patients’ key questions. Conclusions : Community-based UX collaborations can amplify the expertise of UX and nonprofit professionals. However, UX methods may need to be adapted in community-based projects to better incorporate local knowledge and needs.