141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

278914
Assessing community coalition-academic partner collaboration for health policy development

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Alyssa Mayer, MPH, CPH , Florida Prevention Research Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Mahmooda Khaliq, MHS, CPH , Florida Prevention Research Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Anthony D. Panzera, MPH , Social Marketing Group, Florida Prevention Research Center, Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Robert J. McDermott, PhD, FAAHB , Florida Prevention Research Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Anita Courtney, MS, RD , Chair, Tweens Nutrition and Fitness Coalition, Public Health Consultant, Lexington, KY
Ashton Wright, MPH , College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Carol A. Bryant, PhD , College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Introduction: To effect grass-roots health policy development, successful collaboration between community coalitions and academic researchers requires trust, shared input, and egalitarian decision-making. The Florida Prevention Research Center (FPRC) collaborated with the Lexington (Kentucky) Tweens' Nutrition and Fitness Coalition (TN&FC) to co-create Community Based Prevention Marketing (CBPM) for Policy Development, an 8-step framework employing community organization and social marketing principles to build capacity for influencing development of health-related policy. To assess this collaboration, partners co-created an instrument to measure its various dimensions. Methods: Dimensions included process, impact on individual skills, knowledge and abilities [relevant to policy development], community impact, and overall coalition satisfaction. The instrument was administered electronically and completed anonymously by members using a retrospective pretesting style of questioning. Changes in mean scores [pre/post - CBPM training] on measures of these dimensions were calculated. Results: CBPM was attributed as having increased coalition member meeting attendance and group process understanding. Significant improvements also were reported regarding knowledge, particularly the importance of using evidence-based data and strategies for reducing barriers to garnering support for policies (p < .05). Improvement in perceived impact on community and capacity to influence policy approached statistical significance. Perceptions of power between partners was almost evenly split (48.7% FPRC : 51.3%TN&FC). Discussion: Introduction of CBPM to guide policy research, development, and planned advocacy enhanced key measures of coalition performance and satisfaction. A robust and co-created tool for measuring these indicators of coalition performance will comprise one index included in the CBPM for Policy Development toolkit now in development.

Learning Areas:
Program planning
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Identify psychometrically valid items for evaluating a framework to promote evidence-based policy adoption. Design a survey instrument using retrospective pretesting methodology to measure process, impact on individual skills, knowledge and abilities, impact on community, and satisfaction. Demonstrate valid and reliable measurement of community-based participatory research endeavors.

Keywords: Policy/Policy Development, Community-Based Partnership

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Since 2009, I have worked as a research associate with the principal investigators at the Florida Prevention Research Center on the development and implementation of the program I am describing in this abstract. I am evaluation coordinator for this project, and as such authored the instrument described herein. I conducted all statistical analysis related to the project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.