University of Victoria Victoria, BC, Canada.
Nurs Inq. 2010 Dec;17(4):346-58. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1800.2010.00511.x.
Cardiovascular health research has been dominated by medical and patriarchal paradigms, minimizing a broader perspective of causes of disease. Socioeconomic status as a risk for cardiovascular disease is well established by research, yet these findings have had little influence. Participatory research (PR) that frames mixed method research has potential to bring contextualized clinically relevant findings into program planning and policy-making arenas toward developing meaningful health and social policies relevant to primary prevention. In this article we provide an overview of a PR program that included two quantitative and one qualitative studies and then we discuss lessons learned. The PR process we found was empowering for lone mothers, and transformative for lone mothers and researchers. Further, PR as an approach to research opened spaces in practice and policy-making arenas to raise upstream issues relevant to the health of low income lone mothers. We conclude that while PR is an effective approach to social determinants research, as a time-intensive endeavor, and one that does not easily align with research tradition, researchers must consider the strengths and drawbacks of PR when planning to implement such an approach.
心血管健康研究一直受到医学和父权制范式的主导，从而最小化了对疾病原因的更广泛看法。社会经济地位是心血管疾病的一个已知风险因素，这一发现已经得到了充分的研究证实，但这些发现几乎没有产生影响。参与式研究（PR）通过混合方法研究来构建，具有将与临床相关的有意义的发现纳入规划和决策制定领域的潜力，从而制定出与初级预防相关的有意义的健康和社会政策。在本文中，我们概述了一个包含两项定量研究和一项定性研究的 PR 计划，然后讨论了从中获得的经验教训。我们发现，PR 过程对单身母亲具有赋权作用，对单身母亲和研究人员具有变革性。此外，PR 作为一种研究方法，在实践和决策制定领域开辟了空间，提出了与低收入单身母亲健康相关的上游问题。我们的结论是，虽然 PR 是社会决定因素研究的有效方法，但作为一项时间密集型工作，且与研究传统不太容易一致，因此，研究人员在计划实施这种方法时，必须考虑 PR 的优势和缺点。
