Publications by authors named "Angela G Reyes"

Conceptualizing and testing factors that contribute to the success of community-academic partnerships are critical to understanding their contributions to the health and well-being of communities. Most measures to date focus on factors that contribute to the development of partnerships, and only a few have been adequately tested and validated. The Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS) study followed a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach and a multiphase process that included the construction and pilot testing of a questionnaire, and a national survey to validate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire in long-standing CBPR partnerships (existing ≥ six years).

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Introduction: The effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships to address health inequities is well documented. CBPR integrates knowledge and perspectives of diverse communities throughout the research process, following principles that emphasize trust, power sharing, co-learning, and mutual benefits. However, institutions and funders seldom provide the time and resources needed for the critical stage of equitable partnership formation and development.

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Structural racism causes stark health inequities and operates at every level of society, including the academic and governmental entities that support health research and practice. We argue that health research institutions must invest in research that actively disrupts racial hierarchies, with leadership from racially marginalized communities and scholars. We highlight synergies between antiracist principles and community-based participatory research (CBPR), examine the potential for CBPR to promote antiracist research and praxis, illustrate structural barriers to antiracist CBPR praxis, and offer examples of CBPR actions taken to disrupt structural racism.

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Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is widely recognized as an effective approach to understand and address health inequities. Opportunities for public health practitioners and researchers to engage jointly with community partners in intensive colearning processes can build capacity for CBPR. Using active learning approaches that engage diverse partners can enhance partnership development, competence, and equity.

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Article Synopsis
  • For a long time, people from marginalized communities have talked about the problems caused by policing and racism.
  • Recently, more people are starting to pay attention to how these issues affect health in our society.
  • Health educators can help change the way we think about policing, work with communities, and promote safer, fairer practices for everyone.
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Understanding what contributes to success of community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships is essential to ensuring their effectiveness in addressing health disparities and health inequities. Synergy, the concept of accomplishing more together than separately, is central to partnership effectiveness. However, synergy specific to long-standing, equity-focused CBPR partnerships has not been closely examined.

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In this Perspective, we build on social justice and emancipatory traditions within the field of health education, and the field's long-standing commitment to building knowledge and shared power to promote health equity, to examine lessons and opportunities for health education emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining patterns that emerged as the pandemic unfolded in Metropolitan Detroit, with disproportionate impacts on African American and low-income communities, we consider conditions that contributed to excess exposure, mortality, and reduced access to critical health protective resources. Using a life course framework, we consider enduring impacts of the pandemic for health equity.

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Background: Numerous conceptual frameworks have been developed to understand how community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships function, and multiple measurement approaches have been designed to evaluate them. However, most measures are not validated, and have focused on new partnerships. To define and assess the meaning of success in long-standing CBPR partnerships, we are conducting a CBPR study, Measurement Approaches to Partnership Success (MAPS).

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Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an equitable partnership approach that links academic researchers, community organizations, and public health practitioners to work together to understand and address health inequities. Although numerous educational materials on CBPR exist, few training programs develop the skills and knowledge needed to establish effective, equitable partnerships. Furthermore, there are few professional development opportunities for academic researchers, practitioners, and community members to obtain these competencies in an experiential co-learning process.

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Fine particulate matter is associated with adverse health outcomes. Exposure to fine particulate matter may disproportionately affect urban communities with larger numbers of vulnerable residents. We used multilevel logistic regression models to estimate the joint effects of fine particulate matter (PM) and population vulnerabilities on cardiopulmonary mortality (CPM).

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The 21st century has seen a rise in racism and xenophobia in the United States. Few studies have examined the health implications of heightened institutional and interpersonal racism. This study examines changes in reported discrimination and associations with blood pressure over time among non-Latino Blacks (NLBs), Latinos, and non-Latino Whites (NLWs) in an urban area, and variations by nativity among Latinos.

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Objectives: We assessed the effects of neighborhood composition on effectiveness of the Walk Your Heart to Health (WYHH) intervention in promoting physical activity and reducing cardiovascular risk (CVR) in low-to-moderate-income, predominantly non-Latino Black (NLB) and Latino communities.

Method: Multilevel models assessed modifying effects of neighborhood composition on (1) WYHH adherence/participation at 8 weeks and 32 weeks, (2) associations between participation and steps, and (3) associations between steps and CVR.

Results: Approximately 90% of participants were women.

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Background: There is an extensive body of literature on community-based participatory research (CBPR) and the role of community-academic partnerships, much of which has involved community partners in the conceptualization and preparation of publications. However, there has been a relative dearth of solely community voices addressing these topics, given the other roles and responsibilities which community members and leaders of community-based organizations (CBOs) have.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to share the perspectives of three long-time (>20 years) community partners involved in the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center and its affiliated partnerships.

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Residents of distressed urban areas suffer early aging-related disease and excess mortality. Using a community-based participatory research approach in a collaboration between social researchers and cellular biologists, we collected a unique data set of 239 black, white, or Mexican adults from a stratified, multistage probability sample of three Detroit neighborhoods. We drew venous blood and measured telomere length (TL), an indicator of stress-mediated biological aging, linking respondents' TL to their community survey responses.

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Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Walk Your Heart to Health (WYHH) intervention, one component of the multilevel Community Approaches to Cardiovascular Health: Pathways to Heart Health (CATCH:PATH) intervention designed to promote physical activity and reduce cardiovascular risk among non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic residents of Detroit, Michigan. The study was designed and implemented using a community-based participatory research approach that actively engaged community residents, health service providers and academic researchers. It was implemented between 2009 and 2012.

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Objectives: We assessed 2 pathways through which dietary antioxidants may counter adverse effects of exposure to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5) on blood pressure (BP): main (compensatory) and modifying (protective) models.

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The elimination of persistent health inequities requires the engagement of multiple perspectives, resources, and skills. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is one approach to developing action strategies that promote health equity by addressing contextual as well as individual-level factors, and that can contribute to addressing more fundamental factors linked to health inequity. Yet many questions remain about how to implement participatory processes that engage local insights and expertise, are informed by the existing public health knowledge base, and build support across multiple sectors to implement solutions.

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There have been increasing calls for community-academic partnerships to enhance the capacity of partners to engage in policy advocacy aimed at eliminating health disparities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a partnership approach that can facilitate capacity building and policy change through equitable engagement of diverse partners. Toward this end, the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center, a long-standing CBPR partnership, has conducted a policy training project.

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The multiple and diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences inherent in community-academic partnerships make them uniquely positioned to educate policy makers and advocate for health equity. Effective communication tools are critical to successfully engage in the policy-making process. Yet few resources emphasize the development and use of practical tools for translating community-based participatory research (CBPR) findings into action.

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