Ramirez-Andreotta Monica D, Brody Julia Green, Lothrop Nathan, Loh Miranda, Beamer Paloma I, Brown Phil
Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, 1177 E Fourth Street, Rm. 429, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
Environ Health. 2016 Jan 9;15:2. doi: 10.1186/s12940-015-0080-1.
Reporting data back to study participants is increasingly being integrated into exposure and biomonitoring studies. Informal science learning opportunities are valuable in environmental health literacy efforts and report back efforts are filling an important gap in these efforts. Using the University of Arizona's Metals Exposure Study in Homes, this commentary reflects on how community-engaged exposure assessment studies, partnered with data report back efforts are providing a new informal education setting and stimulating free-choice learning. Participants are capitalizing on participating in research and leveraging their research experience to meet personal and community environmental health literacy goals. Observations from report back activities conducted in a mining community support the idea that reporting back biomonitoring data reinforces free-choice learning and this activity can lead to improvements in environmental health literacy. By linking the field of informal science education to the environmental health literacy concepts, this commentary demonstrates how reporting data back to participants is tapping into what an individual is intrinsically motivated to learn and how these efforts are successfully responding to community-identified education and research needs.
向研究参与者反馈数据越来越多地被纳入暴露和生物监测研究中。非正式科学学习机会在环境健康素养提升工作中很有价值，而反馈工作正在填补这些工作中的一个重要空白。通过亚利桑那大学的家庭金属暴露研究，本评论反思了社区参与的暴露评估研究与数据反馈工作如何形成伙伴关系，提供了一种新的非正式教育环境并激发自主学习。参与者正在利用参与研究的机会，借助他们的研究经验来实现个人和社区的环境健康素养目标。在一个采矿社区开展的反馈活动中的观察结果支持了这样一种观点，即反馈生物监测数据强化了自主学习，并且这种活动可以提高环境健康素养。通过将非正式科学教育领域与环境健康素养概念联系起来，本评论展示了向参与者反馈数据如何挖掘个人内在的学习动力，以及这些努力如何成功回应社区确定的教育和研究需求。
