Downey Laura Hall, Castellanos Diana Cuy, Yadrick Kathy, Avis-Williams Amanda, Graham-Kresge Susan, Bogle Margaret
Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA.
Health Promot Pract. 2011 Sep;12(5):744-52. doi: 10.1177/1524839909353743. Epub 2010 Jun 8.
Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative (Delta NIRI) is an academic-community partnership between seven academic institutions and three communities in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. A range of community-based participatory methods have been used to develop sustainable nutrition intervention strategies. Focus groups were conducted with 22 faculty and staff members from the academic partners on the project to document their perceptions of community-based participatory processes in a federally funded, multi-academic-community partnership spanning a decade. Focus groups were conducted to glean insights or lessons from the experiences of academic personnel. Focus groups were transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparative method. Two researchers analyzed each transcript independently and reached consensus on the consistent themes. Participants candidly shared their experiences of working with community members to devise research plans, implement programs, and evaluate outcomes. The majority of faculty and staff members were attracted to this project by an excitement for conducting a more egalitarian and potentially more successful type of research. Yet each academic partner voiced that there was an underlying disconnect between community practices and research procedures during the project. Additional barriers to collaboration and action, located in communities and academic institutions, were described. Academic partners stressed the importance of open and ongoing communication, collective decision-making strategies, and techniques that support power sharing between all parties involved in the project. Findings from this research can inform academic-community partnerships and hopefully improve the community-based participatory research process implemented by academic institutions and communities.
密西西比河下游三角洲营养干预研究倡议（Delta NIRI）是密西西比州、阿肯色州和路易斯安那州的七所学术机构与三个社区之间的学术-社区合作伙伴关系。一系列基于社区的参与式方法已被用于制定可持续的营养干预策略。针对该项目中学术合作伙伴的22名教职员工开展了焦点小组讨论，以记录他们对在一个由联邦资助、跨越十年的多学术-社区合作伙伴关系中基于社区的参与式过程的看法。开展焦点小组讨论是为了从学术人员的经验中获取见解或经验教训。焦点小组讨论的内容被转录并采用持续比较法进行分析。两名研究人员独立分析每份文字记录，并就一致的主题达成共识。参与者坦诚分享了他们与社区成员合作制定研究计划、实施项目和评估结果的经历。大多数教职员工被开展一种更平等且可能更成功的研究类型的热情所吸引而参与这个项目。然而，每个学术合作伙伴都表示，在项目期间社区实践与研究程序之间存在潜在的脱节。还描述了存在于社区和学术机构中的合作与行动的其他障碍。学术合作伙伴强调了开放和持续沟通、集体决策策略以及支持项目所有参与方之间权力共享的技巧的重要性。这项研究的结果可为学术-社区合作伙伴关系提供参考，并有望改进学术机构和社区实施的基于社区的参与式研究过程。
