Community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to study children's health in China: Experiences and reflections

Abstract

Background Community-based participatory research principles have been successfully applied to public health research in U.S. settings. While there is a long history of collaboration between government and communities in China, to date, community-based participatory research has not been used in children’s environmental health studies. Method This article describes how community-based participatory research principles were applied by an international research group to the China Jintan Child Cohort Study, a longitudinal study of malnutrition and lead exposure on cognitive and neurobehavioral development. Challenges emerged and lessons learned from implementing the study were discussed and recommendations were presented. Conclusion We conclude that the community-based participatory research model can be applied in conducting and promoting environmental health research in China and researchers should be prepared for special challenges and cultural constraints in the implementation of the research in regards to human subject regulations, information dissemination, and culture.

Social and demographic determinants for breastfeeding in a rural, suburban and city area of South East China

“…Among the original group of 1,656 children, complete data on breastfeeding and sociodemographic was available for 1,385 families (83.6%). The Jintan Cohort Profile is described in detail elsewhere (Liu et al, 2011; Liu, McCauley, Zhao, Zhang, & Pinto-Martin, 2010). …”

“…Furthermore, a local research focus group (which consisted of pediatricians, school teachers, principals, parents of cohort subjects, and researchers) was actively involved in instrument preparation and formulating culturally relevant explanations of the data (Liu et al, 2011). …”

Developing a context appropriate clinical guideline for post-operative pain management in Ghana: A participatory approach

“…Other authors have demonstrated that groups where members feel threatened or do not respect each other's opinions result in ineffective discussions and findings from such groups are biased or skewed (Wibowo & Deng, 2013). In this regard, researchers are admonished to understand the context and culture of the research setting so that groups will be constituted according to the cultural ethos of the setting (Liu et al, 2011).…”

“…Timely and effective comments were received and this could mean that the participants had full understanding of the processes in this study. The effective cooperation or involvement of research participants in a given study has been noted to enhance the outcome of the study (Liu et al, 2011). The high response for the consensus forum could be because the GHS hosted the forum.…”

“…Participatory processes have been adopted by community-based projects and this approach has been demonstrated to be effective (Kraemer Diaz, Spears Johnson, & Arcury, 2013;Ritchie et al, 2013). The approach has been employed successfully for promoting environmental health (Liu et al, 2011). The report is derived from a multi-stage doctoral study by the first author.…”