Balancing community and university aims in community-based participatory research: a Pacific Islander youth study.

Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) holds the promise of improving the planning, conduct, and long-term translation of research findings into community settings.

Objectives: This 2-year, exploratory study applied CBPR structures and processes to the identification of individual, cultural and community factors associated with obesity among Pacific Islander (PI) youth in Southern California.

Methods: We describe the CBPR principles and strategies used by a community-university partnership to develop, implement, and report on the findings from assessments of obesity, physical activity, and nutritional intake among PI youth.

Results: Although CBPR planning processes led to successes in community-based youth recruitment and retention, we learned key lessons regarding implementation of tailored assessment protocols, often involving problems arising from the university side of the CBPR collaborative.

Conclusion: CBPR has its strengths and limits; more studies are needed that report on processes to increase our understanding of how to balance research rigor with community sustainability.