Lessons learned in implementing a community-based cardiovascular health intervention in a multicultural Latino community

The Lawrence-UMass Community-Academic Partnership began in 2003. Its first project developed and tested a lifestyle intervention to reduce diabetes risk among low-income Latinos (NIDDK R18DK067549). During its implementation, new research questions emerged as the partnership observed the many ways in which stress and depression impacted Latinos' ability to participate in the study and make lifestyle changes. This mirrored community concerns about the impact of stress on the community's physical and mental health. A second ongoing study (NIMH R01MH085653) is documenting individual, familial, social and community levels of stress and examining the association between these and mental and physical health care utilization. This presentation will describe how our CBPR approach resulted in scientific enhancements and community improvements, including: 1) pursuit of research questions of community relevance; 2) design of studies that appropriately address the research questions; 3) involvement of community leaders and role models, which validate the importance of research; 4) involvement of community staff, building community capacity and ensuring engagement; 5) tailoring interventions to meet community needs and cultural preferences; 6) adaptation of assessment methodologies to literacy and culture; 7) participant recruitment and retention protocols that ensure representative community samples; 8) enhanced interpretation of results; 9) strong community and academic dissemination processes; and 9) facilitation of connecting people to community resources. The research builds from, and supports, the mission of the Lawrence Mayor's Health Task Force which is to ensure that all research conducted in the City of Lawrence is relevant to and benefits the community.