141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

290818
Synergy between community-based participatory research and community health worker community advocacy as a force for policy change

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Maia Ingram, MPH , Deputy Director, Arizona Prevention Research Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Samantha Sabo, MPH , Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Sofia Gomez , Arizona Prevention Research Center, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Rosalinda Piper , Health Promotion-Disease Prevention, Mariposa CHC, Nogales, AZ
Kerstin Reinschmidt, PhD, MPH , Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Kenneth Schachter, MD , Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Jill de Zapien, BA , Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Scott Carvajal, PhD, MPH , Health Behavior Health Promotion, Division of Health Promotion Sciences, University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Tucson, AZ
Public health advocacy is by necessity responsive to shifting political climates and thus a challenge of advocacy research is that the intervention must by definition be flexible. Moving beyond the classification of advocacy efforts to measurable indicators of policy change and outcomes therefore requires a dynamic research approach. In this presentation, we will engage in a critical reflection on the use of the community based participatory research approach (CBPR) to develop and measure the impact of Acción, a community advocacy intervention in which community health workers (CHWs) engage community members in making positive changes to their communities. The Kingdon 3-streams model of policy change provided a theoretical framework for the Acción intervention. Research and community partners collaboratively developed research methods to identify and collect Acción intervention data. Over the course of the intervention, the flexible nature of CBPR led to the integration of additional data collection strategies and theoretical frameworks that allowed us to better understand and describe how CHWs were using community advocacy as a form of community engagement. We developed a model to describe the synergistic relationship between the CBPR approach and the Acción intervention in which what we chose to measure influenced intervention activities which concurrently influenced the identification and measurement of research outcomes. Key assumptions of CBPR, community needs driving the research; responsiveness of research measures to community context; and ongoing flexibility in defining research outcomes were crucial in our ability to develop a CHW community advocacy intervention and to adequately document its impact on communities.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Analyze the use of community-based participatory research to measure outcomes of a community health worker community advocacy intervention. Describe specific CBPR methods that can be used to capture indicators of community engagement in policy change. Discuss a model that is used to describe the synergistic and mutually reinforcing relationship between CBPR and community advocacy.

Keywords: Advocacy, Community Health Promoters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a co-investigator on multiple federally funded research and practice projects focusing on the prevention of diabetes and other chronic diseases. Among my interests has been the role of the community health workers in engaging community members in prioritizing and pursuing systemic changes that will positively impact the health of their communities.
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.