Twenty Years of Leading the Way among Cohort Studies in Community-Driven Outreach and Engagement: Jackson State University/Jackson Heart Study.

Marinelle Payton,Jermal Clark,Brenda Campbell Jenkins,Marty Fortenberry,Monique White,Clevette Woodberry,Darcel Thigpen Odom,Pamela Mccoy,Donna Lavigne,Lavon Young,Gregory Wilson,Kathryn Herron,Clifton Addison

doi:10.3390/ijerph18020696

Abstract

Background: History has recorded the tremendous concerns and apprehension expressed by African Americans about participating in research studies. This review enumerates the collaborative techniques that were utilized by the Jackson State University (JSU) Jackson Heart Study (JHS) community-focused team to facilitate recruitment and retention of the JHS cohort and to implement health education and health promotion in the JHS communities. Methods: This review describes the evolution of the JSU JHS community initiatives, an innovative community-driven operation, during the period 1999–2018. Results: JSU JHS community-focused investigators published approximately 20 manuscripts, including community-led research and publications with community lead authors and co-authors, research and publications in collaboration with other JHS staff, through other JSU-funded projects. The JSU JHS community-focused unit also initiated the JHS Community Training Activities, developed the Community Health Advisory Network (CHAN), and trained and certified 137 Community Health Advisors. In addition, the JSU JHS community-focused unit developed the Collaborative Community Science Model (CCSM) that symbolized its approach to community engagement and outreach, and a Trust Scale for ascertaining African Americans’ willingness to engage in biomedical research collaborations. Conclusion: This review offers educators, public health professionals, and research investigators a useful starting point for the development, selection, or improvement of techniques to motivate, inspire, and engage community residents in a community–academia partnership that yielded maximum benefits in the areas of health education, health promotion and interventions, and biomedical research. Substantial, meaningful community engagement is possible when prioritizing elimination of health disparities and long-term improvement in health care access in the target populations.

Highlights

The Jackson Heart Study (JHS), the largest single-site epidemiological study of cardiovascular disease in African Americans, collected data from 5306 African Americans inHinds, Madison and Rankin Counties (Mississippi)
The Jackson State University (JSU) JHS Community Outreach Center (CORC) facilitated the development of the JHS Community Advisory Coalition/Board, a partnership comprised of citizens of the tri-county area of Hinds, Madison, and Rankin counties to represent and promote the perspectives of the community in the conduct of the JHS; community perspectives were obtained from state and community organizations, health and medical educators and providers, and JHS participants
Following training under community-based participatory research (CBPR) renowned pioneers, Barbara Israel and Amy Schulz and others from the University of Michigan (UM) School of Public Health Center for Integrated Approaches for Health Disparities (CIAHD), the JHS Community Health Advisors contributed towards the development of two fact sheets

Summary

Introduction

The Jackson Heart Study (JHS), the largest single-site epidemiological study of cardiovascular disease in African Americans, collected data from 5306 African Americans inHinds, Madison and Rankin Counties (Mississippi). Course focused on CBPR definition, key principles, rationale for developing a CBPR approach for health, describing a process for creating, maintaining a CBPR partnership: how to bring together partners, identify assets, select priority issues. Organizations rationale for developing a CBPR approach for health, describing a process for creating, maintaining a CBPR partnership: how to bring together partners, identify assets, select priority issues; challenges and benefits of conducting CBPR. Course focused on describing health inequities in the U.S. and Mississippi, the role of social and economic conditions in health inequities; strategies that address social and economic conditions in order to improve health and eliminate health inequities. Course focused on describing health inequities, discussing the role of social and economic conditions in health inequities, the implications of social and economic conditions for strategies to improve health and eliminate health inequities, and how CHAs can apply SDOH in their community work

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