Challenges of Data Dissemination Efforts Within a Community-Based Participatory Project About Persistent Racial Disparities in Excess Weight

Shifting From Tokenism to Meaningful Adolescent Participation in Research for Obesity Prevention: A Systematic Scoping Review

Background: Traditionally, adolescent participation in research has been tokenistic. Adolescents are rarely afforded the opportunity to influence decision-making in research designed to prevent obesity. Engaging adolescents in meaningful decision-making may enhance research translation. This review aimed to analyze the current modes and nature of adolescent participation in obesity prevention research decision-making. Methods: A systematic scoping review was conducted using Arksey and O'Malley's six-stage framework. Six major databases were searched for peer-reviewed primary research studies with adolescent participation related to obesity, physical activity, and diet. Modes of adolescent participation were categorized based on the Lansdown-UNICEF conceptual framework for measuring outcomes of adolescent participation. The framework outlines three modes of meaningful participation: (i) consultative, which involves taking opinions and needs into consideration; (ii) collaborative, where adolescents are partners in the decision-making process; and (iii) adolescent-led participation where adolescents have the capacity to influence the process and outcomes. The degree of involvement in research cycles was classified based on the National Health and Medical Research Council consumer engagement framework. Five stages of the research cycle were determined: identify, design and develop, conduct, analyze and disseminate. Results: In total, 126 papers describing 71 unique studies were identified. Of these, 69% (49/71) took place in the USA, and 85% (52/61) were conducted in minority or underserved communities, while males were more likely to be under-represented. In 49% (35/71) of studies, participation was consultative and 9% (6/71) of studies involved an adolescent-led approach. Furthermore, 87% (62/71) of studies incorporated adolescent participation in one or more of the research cycle's formative phases, which involve eliciting views, opinions and idea generation. Only 11% of studies engaged adolescents in all five stages of the research cycle where adolescents could have more influence over the research process. Conclusion: Meaningful adolescent participation in the obesity prevention research cycle is limited. Empowering and mobilizing equal partnership with adolescents should be at the forefront of all adolescent-related obesity prevention research.

Community Planning Perspective and Its Role within the Social Policy of the Municipalities

Community planning solves policy making at different levels of the state’s functioning. Each case has a specific aim and reflects the requirements of citizens. The structure of aims is adjusted to collective and individual levels of clarification of the effect on maximization of potential applications of community planning. The research was realized in the perspective of the municipalities of the Slovak Republic. We used a participatory model of community planning policy as a main tool of community planning potential detection. We emphasized the specific adjustment of community planning to social policy in the Slovak Republic. Data collection was realized by the quantitative research method of a questionnaire. The data were evaluated by a correlation analysis to identify the measure of relationship between variables. Cross-Tabs were used for description of observed categories representation. The results showed a positive effect of the public sector on maximization of community planning policy. On the other hand, the potential declined with rising involvement of the public sector. Individual approach of leading researchers had minimum or no effect on success. It is a collective perspective that decides. In confrontation with the current state, the research represents a unique approach and confirms the exceptionality of the issue. It identifies with the previous findings about a positive contribution of the public participation in community planning. The public perceives the problems critically, expresses the requirements and needs, proposes different solutions and represents important human capital. Additionally, it can make use of contacts and multiply the use of local resources.

Development of tailored feedback reports on organizational capacity for health promotion in African American churches

Standard community-engaged research methods involve reporting research findings back to study participants. Project HEAL is an implementation trial conducted in 14 African American churches. This paper reports on a strengths-based approach to reporting Project HEAL organizational capacity data back to church leadership, through use of individualized church reports. Pastors in each church completed a church organizational capacity assessment. The study team, including community partners representing church leadership, co-created a channel and content to disseminate the capacity data back to Project HEAL church leaders. This consisted of a 4-page lay report that included the church's capacity scores, and recommendations for future evidence-based health promotion programming matched to their capacity. The study team was able to meet with nine of the 14 churches to review the report, which took an average of six and a half weeks to schedule. The individualized church reports were well-received by pastors, who expressed an intention to share the information with others in the church and to sustain health promotion activities in their organizations. Though the individualized reports were embraced by the pastors, it is unknown whether this process will result in sustainable health promotion in these organizations without further follow-up.

A Retrospective on the Vision for Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action

The organizers founded Progress in Community Health Partnerships with a commitment to improving our understanding of community-based participatory research (CBPR) and its use in community-academic/institutional health partnerships. Following Rogers's Diffusion of Innovations, they reasoned that expanded adoption would occur through academic and community partner recognition of CBPR's relative advantage over previous approaches; its compatibility with the values, past experience and needs of potential adopters; its ease of understanding and use; its capacity for experimentation and refinement; and its production of observable results. We now assess the journal's progress toward realizing the vision, as well as issues and problems the organizers identified. We map the journal's content over its first decade onto the initial vision by examining the record of submissions and publications across the eight types of articles and the journal's record of rejections and publications. In remembering that Rogers's study of innovations requires both technical and social change, we discuss the difference between understanding how to do something and actually putting an innovation into action that becomes standard practice at both individual and systemic levels. We observe that the large number of Original Research and Works-in-Progress/Lessons Learned manuscripts, submitted and published, reflect traditional expectations for faculty research productivity. We suggest that sustainability, which rated of lower importance within the initial vision, has gained in importance among community and academic partners; however, it will gain added attention only with changed university expectations of researchers. We further suggest that the study of partnerships involved in researching and improving public health should be expanded beyond the current focus on CBPR.