Funded by: National Center for Minority Health & Disparities

 

The University of New Mexico Center for Participatory Research in partnership with the University of Washington Indigenous Research Wellness Institute launched a Community Based Participatory Research national research project in 2006 to study how CBPR inputs of partnership and participation can improve health status and health equity outcomes.* A national advisory committee of CBPR academic experts and community partners provide monthly oversight to the research efforts and participate in annual research meetings.

 

Research questions include: What is the variability of CBPR practice across diverse contexts, conditions, and populations? What are the promoters and barriers to engaging in successful partnerships? What are the pathways and promising practices within CBPR which lead to improved health status? How do we further the development of appropriate research methodologies and measurement tools to assess CBPR pathways to health?

 

Year One (2006-2007) Accomplishments (See year one report on mycbpr.org):

1. Completion of comprehensive literature review through 2007 (building from previous reviews).

2. Development of CBPR logic model: contextual factors; individual partner, structural and group dynamic characteristics; intermediate system change outcomes; and health outcomes. 3. Interviews with Navajo Nation Institutional Review Board (as complementary case study). 4. Internet survey to pilot-test the contextual, individual, structural, relational, and outcome dimensions of model (Link sent to 25 NCMHD-funded and 13 NARCH-funded CBPR projects, to advisory committee members, and to additional CBPR projects. While explicitly not a survey to evaluate individual partnership, respondents’ were asked about their experiences with participation in CBPR projects.)

5. Triangulation of the literature review, results from the internet survey of CBPR sites, and reflection by national experts facilitated the revision of the logic model and variables to measure.

 

Year Two (2007-2008) Accomplishments (See year two report on my cbpr.org):

1. Completion of literature review of measurement tools and instruments to measure CBPR variables.

2. Creation of menu and matrix of existing instruments and scales of different dimensions in CBPR model.

3. Identification of dimensions in the model, such as contextual factors, with no or few assessment tools.

4. Wrote NARCH V cross-site grant with Aims to create a Community of Practice on CBPR research nationwide; to describe the variability of CBPR partnerships through a survey of 80 CBPR Native and other communities of color partnerships on select pathways and variables; & to conduct eight in-depth case studies. Grant applicant was the National Congress of American Indian Policy Research Center as Principal Investigator, with the University of New Mexico and the University of Washington (UW).

5. Investigation of contexts of research (ie., level of historic trust/mistrust; level of community capacity and readiness to engage in research; level of research institution capacity and readiness to engage in CBPR; and political/policy contexts and trends using vignette methodology).

6. Publication of Chapter 21: What Predicts Outcomes in Community-Based Participatory Research? in Minkler & Wallerstein (eds). CBPR for Health: Process to Outcomes, 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2008.

 

Year Three (2008-2009) Aims:

1. To strengthen the Community of Practice of community and academic partners.

2. To develop community consultation on the CBPR logic model and the applicability of the model for evaluation and diagnosis of existing partnerships and for development of best and promising practices.

3. To begin instrument development on contextual variables using outcomes from the community consultation process and testing vignette methodology.

4. To disseminate products of this process on mycbpr.org and other venues, including the instrument matrix, the model, and a new tool kit for using the model for partnership reflection and evaluation.

 

*Funded by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities through the Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) (US26IHS300009A Supplement, Wallerstein, PI; Duran, co-PI).