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. Methods: Surveys were administered each year to over a dozen partnerships funded by MICHR to evaluate how community and academic partners assessed the dynamics and impact of their study teams over time. Results: The results suggest that partners believed that their partnerships were engaging and highly impactful. Although many substantive differences between community and academic partners' perceptions over time were identified, the most notable regarded the financial management of the partnerships. Conclusion: This work contributes to the field of translational science by evaluating how the financial management of community-engaged health research partnerships in a locally relevant context of Flint can be associated with these teams' scientific productivity and impact with national implications for CEnR. This work presents evaluation methods which can be used by clinical and translational research centers that strive to implement and measure their use of CBPR approaches.

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

Background: 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. This study investigates parental perspectives of changes in fruit/vegetable (FV) intake, processed food (PF) intake, outdoor playtime (OP), physical activity (PA) levels, and recreational screen time (RST) among children living in Michigan during the pandemic. Methods: The study team and community partners developed and distributed a survey using snowball sampling to reach families living largely in Central and Southeastern Michigan. Nonlinear mixed-effects proportional odds models were used to examine associations between child weight status along with demographic/household factors and changes in five weight-related behaviors. Results: Parents (n = 1313; representing 2469 children) reported a decrease in OP, FV, and PA levels, while there was an increase in RST and PF intake among their children. Household income was protective against a decrease in OP, PA, and FV but was associated with increased RST. Children's weight status was associated with decreased FV. Age was negatively associated with OP and PA, and positively associated with RST. Conclusions: These findings suggest an adverse influence of the pandemic on weight-related behaviors, particularly among adolescents in families with lower incomes and those with excess weight. Further work is needed to measure any impact on BMI trajectory and to identify interventions to reverse negative effects.

Evidence-based intervention sustainability strategies: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Sustainability of evidence-based interventions (EBI) remains a challenge for public health community-based institutions. The conceptual definition of sustainment is not universally agreed upon by researchers and practitioners, and strategies utilized to facilitate sustainment of EBI are not consistently reported in published literature. Given these limitations in the field, a systematic review was conducted to summarize the existing evidence supporting discrete sustainment strategies for public health EBIs and facilitating and hindering factors of sustainment. METHODS: We searched PsychINFO, Embase, ProQuest, PubMed, and Google Scholar. The initial search was run in March 2017 and an update was done in March 2019. Study eligibility criteria included (a) public health evidence-based interventions, (b) conducted in the community or community-based settings, and (c) reported outcomes related to EBI sustainment. Details characterizing the study setting, design, target population, and type of EBI sustained were extracted. RESULTS: A total of 26 articles published from 2004 to 2019 were eligible for data extraction. Overall, the importance of sustainability was acknowledged across all of the studies. However, only seven studies presented a conceptual definition of sustainment explicitly within the text. Six of the included studies reported specific sustainment strategies that were used to facilitate the sustainment of EBI. Only three of the studies reported their activities related to sustainment by referencing a sustainment framework. Multiple facilitators (i.e., adaptation/alignment, funding) and barriers (i.e., limited funding, limited resources) were identified as influencing EBI sustainment. The majority (n = 20) of the studies were conducted in high-income countries. Studies from low-income countries were mostly naturalistic. All of the studies from low-income countries reported lack of funding as a hindrance to sustainment. IMPLICATION FOR DISSEMINATION AND IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH: Literature focused on sustainment of public health EBIs should present an explicit definition of the concept. Better reporting of the framework utilized, steps followed, and adaptations made to sustain the intervention might contribute to standardizing and developing the concept. Moreover, encouraging longitudinal dissemination and implementation (D&I) research especially in low-income countries might help strengthen D&I research capacity in public health settings.