Community-Based Health Outcomes

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a new form of research that strives to create more meaningful and equitable partnerships between researchers and the community. Previously, the relationship was more along the lines of a transactional association. The community members were not involved in planning health interventions or designing research projects. However, some researchers have realized that community members can add a significant level of local expertise in some matters. By allowing these stakeholders to become more engaged in the project, it creates new potentials for insights that were previously unimaginable.

This approach has been defined as: "Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach to health and environmental research meant to increase the value of studies for both researchers and the community being studied.

This approach is particularly attractive for academics and public health professionals struggling to address the persistent problems of health care disparities in a variety of populations (identified by factors such as social or economic status, lack of health insurance, or membership in various racial and ethnic groups (Viswananathan, et al., 2004)." It has been argued that conducted properly, this approach can significantly benefit the researchers and the community members alike.

This approach has proven to be advantageous for stakeholders in a range of different settings -- from rural to urban, within a wide array of different minority groups, and even in faith based initiatives (O'Toole, Felix, Chin, Horrowitz, & Tyson, 2003). While CBPR might seem fairly straightforward in theory, the application of this theory is diverse and flexible and can be used in a wide array of different settings. Racial minorities are a disparaged group in the United States and a majority of which receive unequal access to healthcare.

The disadvantages that these individuals face also present opportunities to better serve these communities. The previous versions of research methods did not engage these individuals on virtually any level. However, engaging community members in interventional studies and projects has long been an attractive approach that can effectively increase racial and ethnic minority participation in trials; this not only makes the data more substantive but also improves the level of health disparities (Las Neuces, Hacker, DiGirolamo, & Hicks, 2012).

The CBPR takes engagement to another level; instead of engaging subjects, it actually seeks to make them partners. Beginning a project from the bottom up, with the assistance of disadvantaged community members, can really help researchers focus on the most salient issues in that community to design an intervention that can have the greatest impact for otherwise marginalized people. The CBPR focuses on equitable engagement and is consistent with principles of social justice.

For example, one Latino residential community in Old Town National City, California, was identified through working with local community members as suffering from toxicological effects from vast amounts of pollution that was being dumped in this community from local manufactures (Stone, Wallerstein, Garcia, & Minkier, 2014). The researchers, based on the feedback from community partners, were able to identify high rates of asthma, among other health concerns, that were prevalent in the community.

This project actually went as far as not only addressing the immediate health concerns for the local residents, but also it used the evidence it collected.