Research Advocacy Training Program Benefits Diverse Older Adults in Participation, Self-Efficacy and Attitudes toward Research.

Abstract

Research Advocacy Training Program Benefits Diverse Older Adults in Participation, Self-Efficacy and Attitudes toward Research Ron Wincek, Madeleine E. Hackney, and Hae-Ra Han Welcome to Progress in Community Health Partnerships’ latest episode of our Beyond the Manuscript podcast. In each volume of the Journal, the editors select one article for our Beyond the Manuscript post-study interview with the authors. Beyond the Manuscript provides the authors the opportunity to tell listeners what they would want to know about the project beyond what went into the final manuscript. In this episode of Beyond the Manuscript, Associate Editor, Hae-Ra Han, interviews Ron Wincek and Madeleine E. Hackney, two of the authors of “Research Advocacy Training Program Benefits Diverse Older Adults in Participation, Self-Efficacy and Attitudes toward Research.” Your browser does not support the audio tag. Beyond the Manuscript. Click to hear audio Hae-Ra Han: Hi, my name is Hae-Ra Han. I am professor and co-director of the Center for Cardiovascular and Chronic Care at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. I am also an associate editor for the journal PCHP. Today I have two authors of the paper titled Research Advocacy Training Program Benefits Diverse Older Adults in Participation, Self-efficacy, and Attitudes toward Researchjoining today. Briefly, Mr. Ron Wincek is patient and stakeholder advisor and Dr. Madeleine Hackney is an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at Emory University School of Medicine. Thank you both for your time today. In your paper you talk about this research advocacy training program for seniors called DREAMS, which stands for Developing a Research-Participation Enhancement and Advocacy Training Program for Diverse Seniors. So to start off, can you provide a brief summary of this project, including its purpose and any highlights or main findings for everyone listening, perhaps for Dr. Hackney? Madeleine Hackney: Sure. So we created the DREAMS program. It was aiming to engage diverse older adults in community-based participatory research because educated research participants and advocates are needed across research disciplines. And so in the study, we sought to educate stakeholders about the value of research and the importance of their participation and provide them with opportunities to participate in also patient-centered outcomes research, or PCOR. And we did this with a two-part health education program, which was Part 1, and then a research-advocacy training program, which was Part 2. We wanted to examine the effects of our DREAMS program, just Part 1, on health literacy and psychosocial function, like depression, participation, and quality of life. We also wanted to look at participants’ beliefs and attitudes towards research. And we wanted to look at the effects of DREAMS upon self-efficacy in our participants, which were diverse groups of older adults, including many individuals who were coming from underserved or disadvantaged backgrounds. [End Page 381] Next we wanted to compare the effects of DREAM participation of individuals who completed only Part 1 of DREAMS versus individuals who completed both Parts 1 and 2, so they got both the educational information like a health and wellness section and also learned about exciting new trends in research, but these individuals also went through a pretty intense 16-hour course in research processes. So they learned all about informed consent, and health literacy, and ethics related to research, et cetera. We thought that both groups would benefit from DREAMS but that greater benefits would be apparent in the people who did DREAMS Part 2 as well. And so what we ultimately found was that educating seniors about health and the research process in a senior-friendly, highly participatory manner can increase research participation and improve health literacy and psychosocial health among underserved seniors. We also learned that targeted training and health education that would specifically address misconceptions and fears plus exposure to research advocacy did result in improved attitudes and knowledge regarding research. And we believe that it suggests that advocacy training in particular can impact older adults’ willingness to engage with the scientific...