Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana Health Service, P, O, Box 200, Kintampo, Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2013 Oct 3;13:383. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-13-383.
Community engagement (CE) is becoming relevant in health research activities; however, models for CE in health research are limited in developing countries. The Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) conducts research to influence health policy locally and also internationally. Since its establishment in 1994 with the mandate of conducting relevant public health studies in the middle part of Ghana, KHRC has embarked on a series of clinical and operational studies involving community members. In these studies, community members have been engaged through community durbars before, during and also after all study implementations. Lessons learnt from these activities suggested the need to embark on further CE processes that could serve as a model for emerging research institutions based in African communities.
Interactive community durbars, workshops, in-depth discussions, focus group discussions and radio interactions were used as the main methods in the CE process.
Community members outlined areas of research that they perceived as being of interest to them. Though community members expressed continual interest in our traditional areas of research in communicable, maternal, neonatal and child health, they were interested in new areas such as non- communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Misconceptions about KHRC and its research activities were identified and clarified. This research provided KHRC the opportunity to improve communication guidelines with the community and these are being used in engaging the community at various stages of our research, thus improving on the design and implementation of research.
KHRC has developed a culturally appropriate CE model based on mutual understanding with community members. The experience obtained in the CE process has contributed to building CE capacity in KHRC. Other health research institutions in developing countries could consider the experiences gained.
社区参与（CE）在健康研究活动中变得越来越重要；然而，在发展中国家，CE 健康研究模型有限。金坦波健康研究中心（KHRC）进行研究，以在当地和国际上影响卫生政策。自 1994 年成立以来，KHRC 一直承担着在加纳中部进行相关公共卫生研究的任务，开展了一系列涉及社区成员的临床和运营研究。在这些研究中，社区成员在研究实施之前、期间和之后都通过社区集会参与进来。从这些活动中吸取的经验表明，有必要开展进一步的 CE 进程，为以非洲社区为基础的新兴研究机构提供一个模式。
互动社区集会、研讨会、深入讨论、焦点小组讨论和电台互动被用作 CE 过程的主要方法。
社区成员概述了他们认为自己感兴趣的研究领域。尽管社区成员对我们在传染病、孕产妇、新生儿和儿童健康方面的传统研究领域持续感兴趣，但他们对糖尿病和高血压等非传染性疾病等新领域也感兴趣。确定并澄清了社区对 KHRC 及其研究活动的误解。这项研究使 KHRC 有机会改善与社区的沟通准则，并在我们研究的各个阶段将这些准则用于与社区接触，从而改进研究的设计和实施。
KHRC 已经根据与社区成员的相互理解，制定了一种文化上适当的 CE 模式。CE 过程中获得的经验有助于在 KHRC 建立 CE 能力。发展中国家的其他卫生研究机构可以考虑从中吸取经验。
