Vawer May, Rutiz Rick, Tukuafu Viliami, Whatley Kirsten, Hanchett Kauwila, Kahaleuahi Lipoa, Park Lehualani, Minn Mikala, Blackburn Beth, Young Malia, Muneno Ann, Taira Deborah A, Sentell Tetine, Seto Todd B
The Queen's Medical Center, Honolulu , HI (MV, BB, MY, AM, TBS).
John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai'i Honolulu, HI (TBS).
Hawaii J Med Public Health. 2019 Mar;78(3):111-114.
There are substantial and persistent health disparities among Native Hawaiians that are best addressed through multilevel socio-ecological approaches, which are tailored to the needs of the community. Partnerships that link academic investigators with grass roots community members have the potential to profoundly reduce health disparities and improve health and wellness by increasing the capacity of community-based organizations to provide leadership in health advocacy, support community health promotion, and participate in health research. We describe a 14-year partnership to reduce Native Hawaiian health disparities between investigators from The Queen's Medical Center and University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine (QMC-JABSOM) and community members in Hana, a geographically isolated, underserved, rural community with the second largest concentration of Native Hawaiians in the state. Our relationship started as an investigator-initiated, National Institutes of Health-sponsored study to explore familial cardiomyopathy, and transitioned to a community-based project that combined community cardiovascular health screening fairs with a qualitative research study to understand attitudes towards genetic research. Most recently, QMC-JABSOM has partnered closely with Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike, an award-winning construction skills training program for at-risk youth in Hana, to develop innovative, culturally based interventions to improve health and well-being among Native Hawaiians using principles of community-based participatory research.
夏威夷原住民之间存在着巨大且持续的健康差距，最好通过多层次的社会生态方法来解决，这些方法要根据社区的需求进行调整。将学术研究人员与基层社区成员联系起来的伙伴关系，有潜力通过增强社区组织在健康倡导方面发挥领导作用、支持社区健康促进以及参与健康研究的能力，来大幅减少健康差距并改善健康状况。我们描述了一段长达14年的伙伴关系，该伙伴关系旨在减少夏威夷原住民的健康差距，合作双方是女王医疗中心和夏威夷大学约翰·A·伯恩斯医学院（QMC-JABSOM）的研究人员，以及哈纳的社区成员。哈纳是一个地理上孤立、服务不足的农村社区，是该州夏威夷原住民第二大聚居地。我们的合作始于一项由研究人员发起、美国国立卫生研究院资助的探索家族性心肌病的研究，后来转变为一个基于社区的项目，该项目将社区心血管健康筛查活动与一项定性研究相结合，以了解对基因研究的态度。最近，QMC-JABSOM与Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike紧密合作，Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike是哈纳为高危青年开展的一个屡获殊荣的建筑技能培训项目，旨在运用基于社区的参与性研究原则，开发创新的、基于文化的干预措施，以改善夏威夷原住民的健康和福祉。
