Abstract

BackgroundFocus groups and workshops can be used to gain insights into the persistence of and potential solutions for environmental health priorities in underserved areas. The objective of this study was to characterize focus group and workshop outcomes of a community-academic partnership focused on addressing environmental health priorities in an urban and a rural location in Alabama between 2012 and 2019.MethodsSix focus groups were conducted in 2016 with 60 participants from the City of Birmingham (urban) and 51 participants from Wilcox County (rural), Alabama to discuss solutions for identified environmental health priorities based on previous focus group results in 2012. Recorded focus groups were transcribed and analyzed using the grounded theory approach. Four follow-up workshops that included written survey instruments were conducted to further explore identified priorities and determine whether the priorities change over time in the same urban (68 participants) and rural (72 participants) locations in 2018 and 2019.ResultsConsistent with focus groups in 2012, all six focus groups in 2016 in Birmingham identified abandoned houses as the primary environmental priority. Four groups listed attending city council meetings, contacting government agencies and reporting issues as individual-level solutions. Identified city-level solutions included city-led confiscation, tearing down and transferring of abandoned property ownership. In Wilcox County, all six groups agreed the top priority was drinking water quality, consistent with results in 2012. While the priority was different in Birmingham versus Wilcox County, the top identified reason for problem persistence was similar, namely unresponsive authorities. Additionally, individual-level solutions identified by Wilcox County focus groups were similar to Birmingham, including contacting and pressuring agencies and developing petitions and protesting to raise awareness, while local policy-level solutions identified in Wilcox County included government-led provision of grants to improve septic systems, and transparency in allocation of funds. Workshops in 2018 and 2019 further emphasized water quality as the top priority in Wilcox County, while participants in Birmingham transitioned from abandoned houses as a top priority in 2018 to drinking water quality as a new priority in 2019.ConclusionsApplying a community-engaged approach in both urban and rural locations provided better understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges for identifying potential interventions for environmental health priorities in both locations. Results can help inform future efforts to address locally defined environmental health issues and solutions.

Highlights

  • A healthy environment is essential for improving the quality of life and the extent of healthy living

  • In our initial focus groups in 2012, we found that abandoned houses was the highest environmental health priority in Birmingham, Alabama while inadequate sewer and water services was the top priority in Wilcox County, Alabama [9]

  • Focus group procedure This study involved Virginia Tech and University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers collaborating with Friends of West End (FoWE) in Birmingham, AL, and West Central Alabama Community Health Improvement League (WCACHIL) in Wilcox County, AL as part of an ongoing community-academic partnership, ENACT [8]

Read more

Summary

Introduction

A healthy environment is essential for improving the quality of life and the extent of healthy living. It is designed to improve our understanding of environmental factors affecting health that may be the most promising to address based on local priorities and circumstances. Because of the small size and informal nature of focus groups, participants can build on and debate each other’s responses, which helps to better understand an issue and the influences surrounding it [5] This understanding and information are obtained in a relatively short amount of time, so focus groups are an efficient way for researchers to attain information [6]. Focus groups can enlighten researchers to perceived environmental hazards not previously considered [3] All of these attributes are essential for developing a feasible, acceptable, and supported intervention to address health outcomes associated with environmental factors [7]. The objective of this study was to characterize focus group and workshop outcomes of a community-academic partnership focused on addressing environmental health priorities in an urban and a rural location in Alabama between 2012 and 2019

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call