Developing relevant assessments of community-engaged research partnerships: A community-based participatory approach to evaluating clinical and health research study teams.

Background/objective: In 2017, the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) and community partners in Flint, Michigan collaborated to launch a research funding program and evaluate the dynamics of those research partnerships receiving funding. While validated assessments for community-engaged research (CEnR) partnerships were available, the study team found none sufficiently relevant to conducting CEnR in the context of the work. MICHR faculty and staff along with community partners living and working in Flint used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to develop and administer a locally relevant assessment of CEnR partnerships that were active in Flint in 2019 and 2021.

Parental Perspectives Regarding the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Their Children.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought profound changes to the health of families worldwide. Yet, there is limited research regarding its impact on children. The pandemic may exacerbate factors associated with excess weight, which is particularly concerning due to the potential association between excess weight and severity of COVID-19 infection.

: Lessons Learned from Implementing a Grocery Store Campaign in Michigan Communities at Risk for Neural Tube Defects.

Background: Sisters Together intended to develop and disseminate folic acid (FA) educational materials through a point-of-purchase program in low-income predominantly African American communities in Southeastern Michigan counties with high prevalence of neural tube defects (NTDs).

Methods: Guided by the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Consumer Information Processing Model, 17 supermarkets hosted displays, shelf-signs, and food tastings and tracked purchases of FA sources, alongside customer-intercept and store manager surveys, and observational logs.

Results: Stocking and signage were implemented with moderate-to-high fidelity, and food tastings with high reach and dose.

Community-based organizational capacity building as a strategy to reduce racial health disparities.

One of the biggest challenges facing racial health disparities research is identifying how and where to implement effective, sustainable interventions. Community-based organizations (CBOs) and community-academic partnerships are frequently utilized as vehicles to conduct community health promotion interventions without attending to the viability and sustainability of CBOs or capacity inequities among partners. Utilizing organizational empowerment theory, this paper describes an intervention designed to increase the capacity of CBOs and community-academic partnerships to implement strategies to improve community health.

Healthy Eating and Harambee: curriculum development for a culturally-centered bio-medically oriented nutrition education program to reach African American women of childbearing age.

The purpose was to develop, implement and evaluate a peer-led nutrition curriculum Healthy Eating and Harambee that addresses established objectives of maternal and infant health and to shift the stage for African American women of childbearing age in Genesee County toward healthier dietary patterns using a socio-cultural and biomedical orientation. The PEN-3 model, which frames culture in the context of health promotion interventions, was integrated with the Transtheoretical Model to guide this 13-week pre-test/post-test curriculum. Materials developed included soul food plate visuals, a micronutrient availability worksheet, a fruit stand, and gardening kits.

Using a cultural framework to assess the nutrition influences in relation to birth outcomes among African American women of childbearing age: application of the PEN-3 theoretical model.

The purpose is to present the process and results of focus groups conducted to access information for the design of a healthy eating curriculum to reduce maternal nutritional risks and enhance protective factors among African American women in relation to birth outcomes. Sixteen younger (19 to 25 years) and 20 older African American women (45 to 60 years), respectively, participated. The PEN-3 model, (Airhihenbuwa, 1995, 1999) guided the focus groups.