Abstract
Background: There has been a policy shift towards public and patient involvement (PPI) in population health and health services research in Ireland and internationally. Despite growing evidence that PPI can have positive impacts on the quality and appropriateness of health research, little is known about the involvement and impact of older adults as research partners. The aim of this study is to 1) describe the process of establishing a PPI panel of older adults, family carers and ageing research academics and 2) to evaluate the impact of this research partnership on all research partners. Methods: A partnership-focused framework will guide the recruitment and establishment of a PPI panel of older adults, family carers and academic researchers. Eight to ten older adults and four to six family carers with experience of using health services will be recruited through gatekeepers in a range of non-governmental, voluntary, and community organisations in the Mid-West region of Ireland. Academic researchers will be recruited through the Ageing Research Centre at the University of Limerick. To evaluating the impact of the research partnership on all members of the PPI panel we propose to record an activity log, maintain a record of all meeting, panel discussions and conduct individual interviews with all members of the research team at key time points. The final plan for evaluation will be negotiated and agreed with all members of the PPI panel. Data will be transcribed, managed in NVivo and analysed using an inductive approach to thematic analysis. Dissemination of research findings will be facilitated by the research partnership team of academics and older adults. Discussion: This study will identify learning about the process of establishing a PPI panel guided by a partnership-focused framework and will evaluate the impact of participation in a PPI panel for all members of the research team.
Highlights
There appears to be a need in the research community to on one side evaluate the contribution public and patients make to research they clearly are stakeholders, while on the other there is no such need as this is not done for other stakeholders such as the research fellow or statistician
Any further responses from the reviewers can be found at the end of the article Introduction By 2031, it is forecasted that there will be more than one million older adults in Ireland, representing an increase from 13% (2015) to 20% of our overall population[1]
The results of this review reported that user involvement may achieve better dissemination of research findings due to the influence of research-users in the communities for whom the findings are intended
Summary
There appears to be a need in the research community to on one side evaluate the contribution public and patients make to research they clearly are stakeholders, while on the other there is no such need as this is not done for other stakeholders such as the research fellow or statistician It would be good if the authors could mention this duality somewhere in the paper. Given the increase in the healthy ageing population and the increasing number of older adults identifying as regular health service-users, it has become important to involve the older generation and provide them with an opportunity to shape decisions which may affect the healthcare that they receive For this reason, the authors should be commended for this timely intervention. The aim of this study is to 1) describe the process of establishing a PPI panel of older adults, family carers and ageing research academics and 2) to evaluate the impact of this research partnership on all research partners
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