Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Gerontologist. 2022 Sep 7;62(8):1104-1111. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnab190.
Minoritized older adults face multiple health inequities and disparities, but are less likely to benefit from evidence-based health care interventions. With the increasing diversity of the U.S. aging population, there is a great promise for gerontology researchers to partner with racial/ethnic minority organizations and underrepresented communities to develop and implement evidence-based health interventions. Community-Based Participatory Research and Implementation Science offer guidance and strategies for researchers to develop and sustain community partnerships. However, researchers partnering with community organizations continue to face challenges in these collaborations, study outcomes, and sustainability. This may be especially true for those junior in their career trajectory or new to community-engaged research. The purpose of this forum article is to detail critical challenges that can affect gerontology researcher-community partnerships and relationships from the perspective of researchers. Seven challenges (pre- or mid-intervention design, implementation, and postimplementation phases) described within the Equity-focused Implementation Research for health programs framework are identified and discussed. Potential solutions are also presented. Planning for potential obstacles of the researcher-community partnerships can inform innovative solutions that will facilitate successful partnerships, thereby promoting the advancement of collaborative research between academic institutions and community organizations to improve older adult health outcomes.
少数族裔老年人面临多种健康不平等和差距，但他们不太可能从循证医疗干预中受益。随着美国老龄化人口的日益多样化，老年学研究人员有很大的机会与少数族裔组织和代表性不足的社区合作，开发和实施循证健康干预措施。社区参与式研究和实施科学为研究人员提供了指导和策略，以开发和维持社区伙伴关系。然而，与社区组织合作的研究人员在这些合作、研究结果和可持续性方面仍然面临挑战。对于那些处于职业生涯早期或新涉足社区参与式研究的人来说，情况可能更是如此。本论坛文章的目的是详细说明可能影响老年学研究人员与社区伙伴关系的关键挑战，并从研究人员的角度探讨这些挑战。确定并讨论了健康计划的公平为重点的实施研究框架内的七个挑战（干预前或干预中期设计、实施和实施后阶段）。还提出了潜在的解决方案。为研究人员与社区伙伴关系可能遇到的障碍做好规划，可以为创新性解决方案提供信息，从而促进学术机构和社区组织之间的合作研究取得成功，以改善老年人的健康结果。
