Pursuing Research Justice Through Community-Academic Partnership to Address Racial Disparities in Preterm Birth.

Background: The California Preterm Birth Initiative is a community-engaged research effort focused on addressing racial disparities in birth outcomes.

Objectives: To highlight three community-academic partnership strategies and identify partners' lessons learned and recommendations.

Methods: We conducted interviews (n = 38), four focus groups (n = 23), a document review (n = 174), and meeting/event observations (n = 36).

Adaptation of the Person-Centered Maternity Care Scale in the United States: Prioritizing the Experiences of Black Women and Birthing People.

Introduction: Mistreatment by health care providers disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in the United States. The goal of this study is to adapt the global Person-Centered Maternity Care (PCMC) scale for use in the United States, with particular attention to the experiences of Black women and birthing people.

Methods: We used a community-engaged approach including expert reviews and cognitive interviews to assess content validity, relevance, comprehension, and comprehensiveness of the PCMC items.

Risk and Protective Factors for Preterm Birth Among Black Women in Oakland, California.

This project examines risk and protective factors for preterm birth (PTB) among Black women in Oakland, California. Women with singleton births in 2011-2017 (n = 6199) were included. Risk and protective factors for PTB and independent risk groups were identified using logistic regression and recursive partitioning.

Research priorities of women at risk for preterm birth: findings and a call to action.

Background: Traditional hierarchical approaches to research give privilege to small groups with decision-making power, without direct input from those with lived experience of illness who bear the burden of disease. A Research Justice framework values the expertise of patients and communities as well as their power in creating knowledge and in decisions about what research is conducted. Preterm birth has persisted at epidemic levels in the United States for decades and disproportionately affects women of color, especially Black women.

Health care experiences of pregnant, birthing and postnatal women of color at risk for preterm birth.

Background: Chronic stress is a known risk factor for preterm birth, yet little is known about how healthcare experiences add to or mitigate perceived stress. In this study, we described the pregnancy-related healthcare experiences of 54 women of color from Fresno, Oakland, and San Francisco, California, with social and/or medical risk factors for preterm birth.

Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of focus group data generated as part of a larger project focused on patient and community involvement in preterm birth research.

A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting.

Involvement of patients and the public is now recognized to be essential for the good conduct of research. Patient and public involvement in research priority setting and funding decisions is only beginning to be recognized as important, and methods for doing so are nascent. This protocol describes the Research Prioritization by Affected Communities (RPAC) protocol and findings from its use with women at high socio-demographic risk for preterm birth.