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American Public Health Association
133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition
December 10-14, 2005
Philadelphia, PA
APHA 2005
 
3012.0: Monday, December 12, 2005 - 9:15 AM

Abstract #114189

Academic-researchers' experiences with community-based research: A quantitative and qualitative study of Johns Hopkins Medical Institution Faculty

Mark Farfel, ScD, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-3864, mfarfel@jhsph.edu, Clara Goldberg-Freeman, MHS, Health Policy and Managment, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway, Room 363, Baltimore, MD 21205, and Amanda Vogel, ScM, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 611B St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21202.

The benefits and challenges of community-researcher partnerships have gained increasing attention in recent years. Among other things, community-based participatory research aims to build community capacity, skills, and resources and to ensure that academic researchers and governmental agencies incorporate community priorities and involvement into all phases of research. To better understand researchers' experiences and perspectives, we investigated JHMI faculty members' professional and non-professional involvement in, and collaboration with, the distressed East Baltimore neighborhoods surrounding the JHMI campus. We assessed faculty attitudes about East Baltimore and participatory research and the degree to which their research has had community involvement.

We disseminated an internet-based survey to >4,000 full-time faculty at the JHMI Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland and conducted follow-up in-depth interviews with faculty who had done community-based research in East Baltimore. Our presentation of the study findings will highlight challenges and approaches used by academic researchers and provide suggestions on how institutions, colleagues, and communities can facilitate and support researcher-community partnerships and community based research in general. We will also describe educational modules planned or developed for JHMI researchers to promote participatory research.

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives