Abstract P302: The Mississippi Rural Community Listening Project

Abstract

Background: The Appalachia and Mississippi Delta regions have the lowest life expectancy in the United States. In response, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Louisiana were selected for The Risks Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) Study. The RURAL study is an observational population-based study focused on these at-risk communities in the rural south. During the planning phase, investigators identified the need to incorporate insights from the community in the proposal. Therefore, they initiated the “Rural Community Listening Project” in the four states to seek community members’ points of view on outreach research in their communities. The objectives of this research were to hear from members of the communities their concerns and ideas about health research, approaches that would promote their willingness to participate, and their willingness to have blood drawn and x-rays taken as a part of the research process. Method: Mississippi investigators conducted four focus group interviews with 10-12 participants in each focus group. They interviewed a total of 45 men and women between the ages of 35 to 65 in county-specific focus groups. The groups represented four rural Mississippi Counties: LeFlore, Oktibbeha, Panola, and Tishomingo. The investigators digitally recorded the interviews and had them transcribed, then analyzed the transcripts using thematic analysis. Results: Two themes arose: (1) Encouragement to Participate and (2) Barriers to Participation. Encouragement to Participate included (1) having trusted community stakeholders involved, (2) helping the community, (3) promoting one’s health, and (4) receiving feedback on one’s health. Barriers included lack of trust, time, location, and transportation. Overall, the focus group interviewees had not participated in health research but would be willing to do so. Participants had little to no experience in doing health surveys or tracking their health information using mobile or electronic devices but did not raise objections to doing so. Word-of-mouth, social media, newspaper, telephone, cell phone, and mail were recommended as modes of communicating with their communities. “Relevance to the individual” arose as a more prominent encourager than monetary incentives. Focus group interviewees reported trusting doctors, nurses, and health care providers in their respective communities to collect health information. Conclusion: The in-common barriers to participation in research were time, transportation, and location. Across all focus groups, trust emerged as a requisite for research participation. The model of listening to the community’s experiences, concerns, and recommendations can potentially inform future research practices in rural communities and changes to related state and/or local policies.