Enhancing safe routes to school programs through community-engaged citizen science: two pilot investigations in lower density areas of Santa Clara County, California, USA

The societal impact of Open Science: a scoping review

Open Science (OS) aims, in part, to drive greater societal impact of academic research. Government, funder and institutional policies state that it should further democratize research and increase learning and awareness, evidence-based policy-making, the relevance of research to society's problems, and public trust in research. Yet, measuring the societal impact of OS has proven challenging and synthesized evidence of it is lacking. This study fills this gap by systematically scoping the existing evidence of societal impact driven by OS and its various aspects, including Citizen Science (CS), Open Access (OA), Open/FAIR Data (OFD), Open Code/Software and others. Using the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews and searches conducted in Web of Science, Scopus and relevant grey literature, we identified 196 studies that contain evidence of societal impact. The majority concern CS, with some focused on OA, and only a few addressing other aspects. Key areas of impact found are education and awareness, climate and environment, and social engagement. We found no literature documenting evidence of the societal impact of OFD and limited evidence of societal impact in terms of policy, health, and trust in academic research. Our findings demonstrate a critical need for additional evidence and suggest practical and policy implications.

Integrating Civic Engagement Into a Lifestyle Intervention for Rural Women - A Mixed Methods Process Evaluation

PURPOSE

The present study aimed to evaluate the implementation of a civic engagement curriculum (HEART Club) designed to catalyze positive environmental change in rural communities.

DESIGN

The HEART Club curriculum was integrated into a six-month community-based health behavior intervention to reduce cardiovascular disease risk.

SETTING

Participants were recruited from eight rural towns in Montana and New York.

SUBJECTS

101 midlife and older women.

INTERVENTION

Participants worked to address an issue related to their local food or physical activity environment and establish progress monitoring benchmarks.

METHOD

Evaluation components included after-class surveys, program leader interviews (n = 15), participant focus groups (n = 8), and post-intervention surveys.

RESULTS

Intervention sites reported high fidelity (78%) to the curriculum. Average attendance was 69% and program classes were rated as highly effective (4.1 out of 5). Despite positive participant feedback, low readiness for civic engagement and insufficient time were implementation challenges. The majority of HEART Club groups had accomplished two or more benchmarks post-intervention. Facilitators of progress included community support, effective leadership, and collective effort. Participants also indicated that trying to affect community change while simultaneously making personal health improvements likely stalled initial progress.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight the potential and challenges associated with civic engagement within the context of rural lifestyle interventions. Future implementation efforts should focus on reframing civic engagement as an approach to support and maintain behavior change.

Leveraging Mobile Technology for Public Health Promotion: A Multidisciplinary Perspective

Health behaviors are inextricably linked to health and well-being, yet issues such as physical inactivity and insufficient sleep remain significant global public health problems. Mobile technology-and the unprecedented scope and quantity of data it generates-has a promising but largely untapped potential to promote health behaviors at the individual and population levels. This perspective article provides multidisciplinary recommendations on the design and use of mobile technology, and the concomitant wealth of data, to promote behaviors that support overall health. Using physical activity as anexemplar health behavior, we review emerging strategies for health behavior change interventions. We describe progress on personalizing interventions to an individual and their social, cultural, and built environments, as well as on evaluating relationships between mobile technology data and health to establish evidence-based guidelines. In reviewing these strategies and highlighting directions for future research, we advance the use of theory-based, personalized, and human-centered approaches in promoting health behaviors.

Our Voice in a rural community: empowering Colombian adolescents to advocate for school community well-being through citizen science

BACKGROUND

Santa Ana is home to an Afro-descendant rural population of the island of Barú in Cartagena, Colombia. While a popular area for tourism, Santa Ana's population is affected by multidimensional poverty, precarious work conditions, homelessness, broken streets and sewer systems, limited quality education, and a lack of recreation and sport spaces. While Santa Ana's Community Action Board aims to unify efforts and resources to solve these problems, the state's capacity to meet the requirements of the Board is limited.

METHODS

We evaluated the relationship between healthy lifestyles and characteristics of Santa Ana's school using the Our Voice Citizen Science Research Method. This systemic approach combines information and communication technologies with group facilitation to empower adolescents to: 1) collect and discuss data about factors in their local environments that facilitate or hinder well-being within their school community; 2) identify relevant local stakeholders who could help to address the issues identified; and 3) advocate collectively for local improvements to support increased well-being at a community level.

RESULTS

Eleven citizen scientists ages 13 to 17 years from the science club of Institución Educativa Santa Ana were recruited and together conducted 11 walks within the school to collect data about the facilitators and barriers to student well-being. They identified barriers to well-being related to school infrastructure, furniture, bathrooms, and sense of belonging. They then advocated with school stakeholders and reached agreements on concrete actions to address identified barriers, including fostering a culture among students of caring for school property and presenting their findings to the community action board. This methodology allowed the community to realize how students can become agents of change and take collective action when motivated by solution-oriented methodologies such as Our Voice. Project ripple effects, including greater empowerment and participation in collective actions by students, also were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

This study underscores the importance of the school's built environment in the well-being of students in rural areas. The Our Voice method provided the opportunity to inform school-based interventions, and promoted ripple effects that expanded productive dialogue to the community level and generated systemic actions involving actors outside of the school community.

The "Our Voice" Method: Participatory Action Citizen Science Research to Advance Behavioral Health and Health Equity Outcomes

Citizen science research that more fully engages the community can systematically involve people from under-resourced groups to create practical health-enhancing improvements across physical, social and food environments. Exemplary health equity-focused outcomes include key health behaviors (e.g., healthy eating or physical activity) and community-level changes (e.g., public transit to food shops) that are central to health promotion while being demonstrably impacted by local environmental contexts. Yet, few examples of this approach are readily available for application within complex, community-based settings. In this paper, we present the Our Voice (OV) four-step method to demonstrate an integrated participatory citizen science approach and its usability for action-focused researchers and community health practitioners. In addition, we present a summary of the major research, processes, and community outcomes, with examples drawn from nutrition and healthy food access areas, among others. Finally, we explore the hallmark features of the OV method that effectively engage citizen scientists, empowering action and fostering solution-building across social and environmental structures impacting community health. Expanding research that marries participatory research philosophies with innovative citizen science methods, supported by systematic data collection, visualization, and delivery technologies, in turn provides a powerful toolkit for tackling local to global health equity challenges.

A Scoping Review of Citizen Science Approaches in Chronic Disease Prevention

Background

Citizen science approaches, which involve members of the public as active collaborators in scientific research, are increasingly being recognized for their potential benefits in chronic disease prevention. However, understanding the potential applicability, feasibility and impacts of these approaches is necessary if they are to be more widely used. This study aimed to synthesize research that has applied and evaluated citizen science approaches in chronic disease prevention and identify key questions, gaps, and opportunities to inform future work in this field.

Methods

We searched six databases (Scopus, Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, PubMed, and CINAHL) in January 2022 to identify articles on the use of citizen science in prevention. We extracted and synthesized data on key characteristics of citizen science projects, including topics, aims and level of involvement of citizen scientists, as well as methods and findings of evaluations of these projects.

Results

Eighty-one articles reported on citizen science across a variety of health issues, predominantly physical activity and/or nutrition. Projects primarily aimed to identify problems from the perspective of community members; generate and prioritize solutions; develop, test or evaluate interventions; or build community capacity. Most projects were small-scale, and few were co-produced with policy or practice stakeholders. While around half of projects included an evaluation component, overall, there was a lack of robust, in-depth evaluations of the processes and impacts of citizen science projects.

Conclusions

Citizen science approaches are increasingly being used in chronic disease prevention to identify and prioritize community-focused solutions, mobilize support and advocacy, and empower communities to take action to support their health and wellbeing. However, to realize the potential of this approach more attention needs to be paid to demonstrating the feasibility of using citizen science approaches at scale, and to rigorous evaluation of impacts from using these approaches for the diverse stakeholders involved.

Intersection of Health Informatics Tools and Community Engagement in Health-Related Research to Reduce Health Inequities: Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

The exponential growth of health information technology has the potential to facilitate community engagement in research. However, little is known about the use of health information technology in community-engaged research, such as which types of health information technology are used, which populations are engaged, and what are the research outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this scoping review were to examine studies that used health information technology for community engagement and to assess (1) the types of populations, (2) community engagement strategies, (3) types of health information technology tools, and (4) outcomes of interest.

METHODS

We searched PubMed and PCORI Literature Explorer using terms related to health information technology, health informatics, community engagement, and stakeholder involvement. This search process yielded 967 papers for screening. After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, a total of 37 papers were analyzed for key themes and for approaches relevant to health information technology and community engagement research.

RESULTS

This analysis revealed that the communities engaged were generally underrepresented populations in health-related research, including racial or ethnic minority communities such as Black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Latino ethnicity, and communities from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The studies focused on various age groups, ranging from preschoolers to older adults. The studies were also geographically spread across the United States and the world. Community engagement strategies included collaborative development of health information technology tools and partnerships to promote use (encompassing collaborative development, use of community advisory boards, and focus groups for eliciting information needs) and use of health information technology to engage communities in research (eg, through citizen science). The types of technology varied across studies, with mobile or tablet-based apps being the most common platform. Outcomes measured included eliciting user needs and requirements, assessing health information technology tools and prototypes with participants, measuring knowledge, and advocating for community change.

CONCLUSIONS

This study illustrates the current landscape at the intersection of health information technology tools and community-engaged research approaches. It highlights studies in which various community-engaged research approaches were used to design culturally centered health information technology tools, to promote health information technology uptake, or for engagement in health research and advocacy. Our findings can serve as a platform for generating future research upon which to expand the scope of health information technology tools and their use for meaningful stakeholder engagement. Studies that incorporate community context and needs have a greater chance of cocreating culturally centered health information technology tools and better knowledge to promote action and improve health outcomes.

The Role of Citizen Science in Promoting Health Equity

While there are many definitions of citizen science, the term usually refers to the participation of the general public in the scientific process in collaboration with professional scientists. Citizen scientists have been engaged to promote health equity, especially in the areas of environmental contaminant exposures, physical activity, and healthy eating. Citizen scientists commonly come from communities experiencing health inequities and have collected data using a range of strategies and technologies, such as air sensors, water quality kits, and mobile applications. On the basis of our review, and to advance the field of citizen science to address health equity, we recommend (a) expanding the focus on topics important for health equity, (b) increasing the diversity of people serving as citizen scientists, (c) increasing the integration of citizen scientists in additional research phases, (d) continuing to leverage emerging technologies that enable citizen scientists to collect data relevant for health equity, and (e) strengthening the rigor of methods to evaluate impacts on health equity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

[Entorno social y obesidad infantil: implicaciones para la investigación y la práctica en Estados Unidos y en los países latinoamericanos]

The environments of children influence their risk for childhood obesity through, among other factors, a child's weight-related behaviors (i.e., diet and physical activity). In this article, we present evidence on social environmental factors associated with a child's diet and physical activity, and more generally, the prevention and control of childhood obesity among Hispanic/Latinx children in the United States and children from countries in Latin America. Using a socio-ecologic lens, we present evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies conducted in the United States involving Hispanic/Latinx children, and evidence from studies involving children in Latin America. Studies examining parenting factors in the home environment (e.g., parenting strategies) are especially emphasized, with more limited evidence on social environmental factors in other lived contexts (e.g., school). The influence of acculturation on social relationships cuts across levels of the socio-ecological framework. Intervention research identified strategies and research gaps for intervening on social factors to promote healthy behaviors and reduce risk for childhood obesity. Community health workers and others forms of peer support were identified as relevant approaches at multiple levels of the socio-ecological framework. This article concludes with directions for future research to further understand the environment using newer information and communication technologies.

Exploring the potential of citizen science for public health through an alcohol advertising case study

Citizen science connects academic researchers with the public through combined efforts in scientific inquiry. The importance of involving impacted populations in health research is well established. However, how to achieve meaningful participation and the methodological impact of citizen science needs further examination. We examined the feasibility of using citizen science to understand the impact of alcohol advertising on Australian women through a breast cancer prevention project. Two hundred and eighty-two ('participants') citizen scientists completed demographic and behavioural questions via an online survey. The research participants moved into the role of citizen scientists by completing the data collection tasks of capturing and classifying images of alcohol advertising they saw online. Interrater reliability tests found high levels of agreement between citizen scientists and academic researchers with the classification of alcohol advertising brand (Kappa = 0.964, p < 0.001) and image type (Kappa = 0.936, p < 0.000). The citizen scientists were women aged 18 and over, with 62% between 35 and 55 years old. The majority were from major cities (78%), had attained a bachelor's degree or higher-level education (62%) and were recruited via email or Facebook (86%). The use of citizen science provided methodological gains through the creation of a unique dataset with higher levels of validity than the existing literature, which employed traditional investigator-driven research methodologies. Citizen science enriched the dataset and provided a powerful methodological vehicle to understand an environmental determinant of health. The study illuminates how public participation benefitted the research process, the challenges and the potential for citizen science to improve public health.

A Novel Model for Generating Creative, Community-Responsive Interventions to Reduce Gender-Based Violence on College Campuses

Currently, the most successful prevention interventions against sexual violence (SV) on United States college campuses target modifications at the individual and interpersonal levels. Community-level interventions have been under-developed for college campuses. To address this gap, we employ a citizen science model for understanding campus community factors affecting SV risk. The model, called Our Voice, starts by engaging groups of college students to collect data in their own communities, identifying factors they view as increasing the risk of SV. In facilitated meetings, participants then review and analyze their collective data and use it to generate actionable community-level solutions and advocate for them with local decision-makers. We share findings from a first-generation study of the Our Voice model applied to SV prevention on one college campus, and include recommendations for further research.

The social environment and childhood obesity: Implications for research and practice in the United States and countries in Latin America

The environments of children influence their risk for childhood obesity through, among other factors, a child's weight-related behaviors (i.e., diet and physical activity). In this article, we present evidence on social environmental factors associated with a child's diet and physical activity, and more generally, the prevention and control of childhood obesity among Hispanic/Latinx children in the United States and children from countries in Latin America. Using a socio-ecologic lens, we present evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies conducted in the United States involving Hispanic/Latinx children, and evidence from studies involving children in Latin America. Studies examining parenting factors in the home environment (e.g., parenting strategies) are especially emphasized, with more limited evidence on social environmental factors in other lived contexts (e.g., school). The influence of acculturation on social relationships cuts across levels of the socio-ecological framework. Intervention research identified strategies and research gaps for intervening on social factors to promote healthy behaviors and reduce risk for childhood obesity. Community health workers and others forms of peer support were identified as relevant approaches at multiple levels of the socio-ecological framework. This article concludes with directions for future research to further understand the environment using newer information and communication technologies.

Built environment in programs to promote physical activity among Latino children and youth living in the United States and in Latin America

To prevent obesity among Latino youth in the United States and Latin America, it is necessary to understand the specific context and interplay of physical activity (PA) and the built environment (BE). This paper aims to advance the research agenda of BE and PA for obesity prevention in Latin America and among Latino youth in the United States by (1) identifying environmental indicators to inform the design of interventions and policy, (2) identifying interdisciplinary methodological approaches for the study of the complex association between BE and PA, and (3) presenting case studies of PA-promoting BE programs. A group of U.S. and Latin American scientists collaboratively worked to propose innovative indicators of the BE, methodological approaches for the study of the complex association between BE and PA, and review case studies of PA-promoting BE programs in both regions. The results identified gaps in knowledge, proposed environmental indicators (e.g., landscape, street design, mobility patterns, and crime and safety), reviewed methodological approaches (social network analysis, citizen science methods), and case studies illustrating PA-promoting BE programs (i.e., play streets, active school transport, and school setting interventions). The obesity prevention among Latino and Latin American youth requires advanced research on BE and PA addressing context-specific priorities and exchanging lessons learned.

Exploring University Age-Friendliness Using Collaborative Citizen Science

Background and Objectives

Since the launch of Dublin City University’s Age-Friendly University (AFU) Initiative in 2012, relatively little empirical research has been published on its feasibility or implementation by institutions of higher learning. This article describes how collaborative citizen science—a research method where professional researchers and community members work together across multiple stages of the research process (e.g., data collection, analysis, and/or knowledge mobilization) to investigate an issue—was used to identify barriers and supports to university age-friendliness at the University of Manitoba (UofM) in Canada.

Research Design and Methods

Ten citizen scientists each completed 1 data collection walk around the UofM campus and used a tablet application to document AFU barriers and supports via photographs and accompanying audio commentaries. The citizen scientists and university researchers then worked together in 2 analysis sessions to identify AFU priority areas and brainstorm recommendations for institutional change. These were then presented to a group of interested university stakeholders.

Results

The citizen scientists collected 157 photos documenting AFU barriers and supports on campus. Accessibility, signage, and transportation were identified as being the most pressing issues for the university to address to improve overall age-friendliness.

Discussion and Implications

We suggest that academic institutions looking to complete assessments of their age-friendliness, particularly those exploring physical barriers and supports, could benefit from incorporating older citizen scientists into the process of collecting, analyzing, and mobilizing findings.

Community-Based Approaches to Reducing Health Inequities and Fostering Environmental Justice through Global Youth-Engaged Citizen Science

Growing socioeconomic and structural disparities within and between nations have created unprecedented health inequities that have been felt most keenly among the world's youth. While policy approaches can help to mitigate such inequities, they are often challenging to enact in under-resourced and marginalized communities. Community-engaged participatory action research provides an alternative or complementary means for addressing the physical and social environmental contexts that can impact health inequities. The purpose of this article is to describe the application of a particular form of technology-enabled participatory action research, called the Our Voice citizen science research model, with youth. An overview of 20 Our Voice studies occurring across five continents indicates that youth and young adults from varied backgrounds and with interests in diverse issues affecting their communities can participate successfully in multiple contributory research processes, including those representing the full scientific endeavor. These activities can, in turn, lead to changes in physical and social environments of relevance to health, wellbeing, and, at times, climate stabilization. The article ends with future directions for the advancement of this type of community-engaged citizen science among young people across the socioeconomic spectrum.

Employing Participatory Citizen Science Methods to Promote Age-Friendly Environments Worldwide

The trajectory of aging is profoundly impacted by the physical and social environmental contexts in which we live. While “top–down” policy activities can have potentially wide impacts on such contexts, they often take time, resources, and political will, and therefore can be less accessible to underserved communities. This article describes a “bottom–up”, resident-engaged method to advance local environmental and policy change, called Our Voice, that can complement policy-level strategies for improving the health, function, and well-being of older adults. Using the World Health Organization’s age-friendly cities global strategy, we describe the Our Voice citizen science program of research that has specifically targeted older adults as environmental change agents to improve their own health and well-being as well as that of their communities. Results from 14 Our Voice studies that have occurred across five continents demonstrate that older adults can learn to use mobile technology to systematically capture and collectively analyze their own data. They can then successfully build consensus around high-priority issues that can be realistically changed and work effectively with local stakeholders to enact meaningful environmental and policy changes that can help to promote healthy aging. The article ends with recommended next steps for growing the resident-engaged citizen science field to advance the health and welfare of all older adults.

Best practices for analyzing large-scale health data from wearables and smartphone apps

Smartphone apps and wearable devices for tracking physical activity and other health behaviors have become popular in recent years and provide a largely untapped source of data about health behaviors in the free-living environment. The data are large in scale, collected at low cost in the “wild”, and often recorded in an automatic fashion, providing a powerful complement to traditional surveillance studies and controlled trials. These data are helping to reveal, for example, new insights about environmental and social influences on physical activity. The observational nature of the datasets and collection via commercial devices and apps pose challenges, however, including the potential for measurement, population, and/or selection bias, as well as missing data. In this article, we review insights gleaned from these datasets and propose best practices for addressing the limitations of large-scale data from apps and wearables. Our goal is to enable researchers to effectively harness the data from smartphone apps and wearable devices to better understand what drives physical activity and other health behaviors.