Newton Sam, Asbroek Guus Ten, Hill Zelee, Agyemang Charlotte Tawiah, Soremekun Seyi, Etego Seeba Amenga, Kirkwood Betty
School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Private Mail Bag, Kumasi, Ghana.
Department of Global Health, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Location AMC, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Emerg Themes Epidemiol. 2021 Dec 24;18(1):19. doi: 10.1186/s12982-021-00110-7.
Successful implementation of community-based research is dominantly influenced by participation and engagement from the local community without which community members will not want to participate in research and important knowledge and potential health benefits will be missed. Therefore, maximising community participation and engagement is key for the effective conduct of community-based research. In this paper, we present lessons learnt over two decades of conducting research in 7 rural districts in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana with an estimated population of around 600,000. The trials which were mainly in the area of Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health were conducted by the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
The four core strategies which were used were formative research methods, the formation of the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) team to serve as the main link between the research team and the community, recruitment of field workers from the communities within which they lived, and close collaboration with national and regional stakeholders.
These measures allowed trust to be built between the community members and the research team and ensured that potential misconceptions which came up in the communities were promptly dealt with through the IEC team. The decision to place field workers in the communities from which they came and their knowledge of the local language created trust between the research team and the community. The close working relationship between the District health authorities and the Kintampo Health Research Centre supported the acceptance of the research in the communities as the District Health Authorities were respected and trusted.
The successes achieved during the past 2 decades of collaboration between LSHTM and KHRC in conducting community-based field trials were based on involving the community in research projects. Community participation and engagement helped not only to identify the pertinent issues, but also enabled the communities and research team to contribute towards efforts to address challenges.
基于社区的研究能否成功实施，主要受当地社区参与度的影响。没有社区成员的参与，他们就不会愿意参与研究，重要的知识和潜在的健康益处也将被错过。因此，最大限度地提高社区参与度是有效开展基于社区的研究的关键。在本文中，我们介绍了在加纳布朗阿哈福地区7个农村地区开展20多年研究的经验教训，这些地区估计人口约60万。这些试验主要集中在孕产妇、新生儿和儿童健康领域，由金坦波健康研究中心（KHRC）与伦敦卫生与热带医学院（LSHTM）合作开展。
采用的四个核心策略是形成性研究方法、组建信息、教育和宣传（IEC）团队作为研究团队与社区之间的主要纽带、从他们所居住的社区招募实地工作者，以及与国家和地区利益相关者密切合作。
这些措施增进了社区成员与研究团队之间的信任，并确保通过IEC团队及时处理社区中出现的潜在误解。让实地工作者来自他们所在的社区以及他们对当地语言的了解，在研究团队和社区之间建立了信任。地区卫生当局与金坦波健康研究中心之间的密切工作关系，有助于社区接受这项研究，因为地区卫生当局受到尊重和信任。
过去20年里，LSHTM和KHRC在开展基于社区的现场试验方面的合作取得成功，是基于让社区参与研究项目。社区参与不仅有助于确定相关问题，还使社区和研究团队能够为应对挑战做出贡献。
