Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Division of International Health, One Gustave L. Levy Place, #1057, New York, NY, 10029-6574, USA.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Jun 25;18(1):784. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5721-1.
Communicating results to participants is a fundamental component of community-based participatory research (CBPR). However, in environmental exposure studies this is not always practiced, partly due to ethical concerns of communicating results that have unknown clinical significance.
Growing Up Healthy was a community-based participatory research study that sought to understand the relationship between environmental exposures to phthalates and early puberty in young girls. After in-depth consultation with a Community Advisory Board, study investigators provided group summary results of phthalate exposures and related health information to the parents of study participants. Parents' comprehension and knowledge of the health information provided was then assessed through questionnaires.
After receiving the information from the research team, responders were able to correctly answer comprehension questions about phthalate exposures in their community, were able to identify ways to reduce exposure to phthalates, and indicated plans to do so. Questionnaires revealed that parents wanted more information on phthalates, and that children's environmental health was an important concern.
We conclude that effective communication of exposure results of unknown clinical significance to participants in environmental health studies can be achieved by providing group summary results and actionable health information. Results suggest that there was an improvement in knowledge of environmental health and in risk reduction behaviors in our study population.
向参与者传达研究结果是社区参与式研究（CBPR）的一个基本组成部分。然而，在环境暴露研究中，这并不总是行得通，部分原因是出于沟通结果的伦理考虑，这些结果具有未知的临床意义。
“健康成长”是一项社区参与式研究，旨在了解邻苯二甲酸酯类环境暴露与年轻女孩青春期提前之间的关系。在与社区咨询委员会进行深入协商后，研究人员向研究参与者的家长提供了邻苯二甲酸酯类暴露和相关健康信息的小组汇总结果。然后通过问卷调查评估家长对提供的健康信息的理解和了解程度。
在从研究小组收到信息后，回答者能够正确回答有关社区邻苯二甲酸酯类暴露的理解问题，能够识别减少邻苯二甲酸酯类暴露的方法，并表示计划这样做。调查问卷显示，家长希望获得更多有关邻苯二甲酸酯的信息，并且儿童的环境健康是一个重要关注点。
我们的结论是，通过提供小组汇总结果和可操作的健康信息，可以实现向环境健康研究中的参与者传达具有未知临床意义的暴露结果的有效沟通。结果表明，我们的研究人群在环境健康知识和降低风险行为方面有所改善。
