Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113578

Kate Shirah, MPH, Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina, CB #7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919 966-0057, kate_shirah@unc.edu, Jaime Montano, Chatham Social Health Council, 104 S Chatham Avenue, Siler City, NC 27344, Rachel I. Willard, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB #7440, Rosenau Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, India Ornelas, MPH, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina School of Public Health, CB #7440, Rosenau Hall 315, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, Eugenia Eng, DrPH, Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Rosenau Hall - Campus Box 7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, Scott D. Rhodes, PhD, MPH, CHES, Department of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Section on Social Sciences and Health Policy, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1063, and Arnita Ford Norwood, MPH, Nutrition, University of North Carolina, CB 7461, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.

Public health researchers sometimes use natural helpers—those individuals who are recognized and trusted within a community—to serve as lay health advisors. Traditionally, lay health advisors have served as health advisors, bridges to health and social services, social change agents and community activists. Community-based participatory research (CBPR), in which community members and academic researchers are equal partners, offers an ideal opportunity to add the role of researcher to the lay health advisor model.

Men as Navigators (MAN) for Health is a CBPR project that engages African American and Latino men to serve as lay health advisors, or navigators. By training navigators in research methodology and data collection, the investigators wished to: (1) acknowledge the historical distrust of scientific research and educate community members regarding current federal guidelines that protect the rights of research participants; (2) appreciate the trust established between members of a community and increase our ability to gather sensitive health information; and (3) enhance the role of the lay health advisor by building skills in evaluation. Preparation of navigators as researchers included training in human subjects' protection; the purpose of evaluating the MAN for Health project; skills in collecting data through group interviews; and strategies for traversing their dual roles as health advisors and researchers. This session discusses the benefits of and recommendations for training the lay health advisor as researcher.

Learning Objectives:

• 3. Describe the role of the lay health advisor as researcher.
  7. Discuss the potential benefits of engaging lay health advisors as researchers.
  11. Identify key components of training lay health advisors to serve as researchers.

Keywords: Lay Health Workers, Participatory Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation