Using Garden Cafés to engage community stakeholders in health research

Community-Driven Conversations: Partnership Building through CHEC-Ins

BACKGROUND

Chicago's systemically underserved communities have disproportionately high cancer rates. The Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative (ChicagoCHEC) brings together academic and community partners to address these health inequities. The community conversations known as "CHEC-Ins" provide a space for community members to voice their experiences and needs and for ChicagoCHEC to fulfill its commitment to advancing health equity through collaboration and action.

OBJECTIVE

This paper presents a community-generated approach to social networking about cancer health issues known as CHEC-Ins. Through this innovative approach, community members and organizations share cancer related information and experiences, as well as needs and concerns, which are then channeled to ChicagoCHEC academic and administrative members who incorporate them into outreach and research activities. In this way, community members set the agenda and the process and collect the information they deem relevant and important. This paper describes the process of organizing and conducting two pilot CHEC-Ins and the model of this approach, which we intend to employ moving forward to advance partnership building and collaborative research practice between academic institutions and community partners and organizations. This paper contributes a unique model of community-generated and led outreach as a cornerstone of the ChicagoCHEC approach to community engagement.

METHODS

The leaders of the ChicagoCHEC Community Steering Committee spearheaded the design and implementation of CHEC-Ins, including developing the question guide and hosting events within their organizations.

LESSONS LEARNED

CHEC-Ins proved to be a valuable strategy for defining the role of community partners and establishing the basis for a bi-directional flow of information, resources, and productive action. The two pilot CHEC-Ins revealed important insights related to sources of cancer information, meanings and associated attitudes, barriers to access and use of health services, and social support systems in the communities where ChicagoCHEC works. We will implement this approach and continue to refine it as we conduct CHECIns moving forward.

The Value and Impact of a Health Café Organized by Primary Care Physician, On Visitors, Clinics, and the Community: A Qualitative Study

Introduction:

Reflecting the rapidly aging society, there has been a worldwide increase in the number of health cafés and dementia cafés which can provide a variety of support to people with illnesses and their families in the community. Nevertheless, health cafés organized by primary care physicians are rarely reported, and the social value of these activities has not yet been fully elucidated.

Objectives:

This study was aimed to investigate the value and impact that the health café organized by the primary care physician, brings to the visitors, the clinic, and the community.

Methods:

Conversations between the author (YO), who belongs to a medical clinic that has been operating for many years in Shizuoka City, and visitors of the health café were qualitatively analyzed using Steps for Coding and Theorization (SCAT), which is a sequential and thematic qualitative analysis technique consisting of 4 steps.

Results:

Sixteen people participated in the study. The values and impacts of holding a health café were social support, opportunities for cognitive and behavioral changes, complementary functions to outpatient care, advantages for medical care, the creation of encounters with diverse individuals, connections with local community organizations, and motivating visitors to become proactive actors.

Conclusion:

It was considered valuable for physicians in community-based medical clinics to have opportunities to interact with patients and local residents outside the clinical settings. Because they can potentially enhance their role as primary care physicians in the community. In addition, the impact on the community is that local residents can receive social support, increase community ties, and make people more proactive about their health.

Feasibility of a virtual Facebook community platform for engagement on health research

INTRODUCTION

Community engagement is important for advancing Clinical and Translational Science (CTS), but face-to-face engagement has limited reach and scale. We examined the feasibility of a novel virtual Facebook community platform for public engagement on health research statewide in Minnesota.

METHODS

The Facebook platform, MN Research Link, was evaluated from June 19, 2019 to June 30, 2020. Facebook advertisements and boosts were used to recruit followers. Content, based on prior formative work, included health research information and interactive postings (e.g., live interviews with researchers). Standard metrics obtained from Facebook analytics included participation (followers), content reach (views), and engagement (likes, shares, comments, clicks).

RESULTS

During the 12-month period, we acquired 1406 followers (31% rural residents), with a retention of followers of 99.7%. Mean number of views per month was 9379.83 (Mdn = 2791, range 724-41,510). Engagement metrics indicated a mean of 535.2 likes, shares, comments, and/or clicks per month (Mdn = 296.5, range 55-1535). The page continued to acquire new followers, but a slight decrease in engagement was observed in the final months after state COVID-19 mitigation strategies were implemented.

CONCLUSION

As the complexity of CTS continues to grow, along with social distancing measures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of virtual digital platforms to reach and engage community stakeholders in conversations about health and research has increasing importance. Preliminary findings from this program evaluation indicate that a Facebook community platform is feasible to engage Minnesota residents in conversations around health and research topics. Future work will evaluate its potential for reach, scale, and sustainability.

Health Café Series: a Potential Platform to Reduce Health Disparities

To help bridge the increasing gap between health scientists/physicians and the community, we have developed a new seminar program—Health Café series. Health Café takes place in causal settings, is open to everyone, and features a keynote speaker regarding prevalent healthcare-related topics. Health Café topics are usually generated via community feedback and are coordinated in partnership with local nonprofit community organizations. The Health Café series is completely free, and no prior knowledge is required to attend seminars. We have been collaborating with a web of community organizations in the Hartford areas of Connecticut, especially among populations with health disparities. We believe our new Health Café series program would serve as a forum to reduce health disparities in the region.

Rural-urban health disparities for mood disorders and obesity in a midwestern community

INTRODUCTION

Prior studies indicate greater disease burden for obesity among rural compared with urban residents but no differences for mood disorder based on geographic location. Recent attention has focused on the need to examine regional rural-urban disparities in disease burden. We focused on mood disorders and obesity prevalence within three southeastern Minnesota counties served by the Mayo Clinic Center for Translational Science Award, in Rochester, Minnesota, as these were top priorities identified in community health needs assessments.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study to assess the association of rural-urban locality on 5-year (2009-2014) prevalence of mood disorder and obesity obtained using the Rochester Epidemiological Project medical records linkage system, among subjects residing in three mixed rural-urban counties on April 1, 2014. Multivariable analyses adjusted for demographics, socioeconomic status using an individual housing-based measure, and counties.

RESULTS

The study cohort (percent rural location) included 91,202 (15%) for Olmsted, 10,197 (51%) in Dodge, and 10,184 (57%) in Wabasha counties. On multivariate analysis, 5-year prevalence of mood disorders and obesity was significantly greater for urban compared with rural residents, after adjusting for confounders; odds ratios (95% confidence intervals): 1.21 (1.17-1.26), P < 0.001, and 1.05 (1.01-1.10), P = 0.016, respectively. Observed effects were not modified in additional models adjusted for health care utilization (HCU; ≥1 general medical examination visit and flu vaccination).

CONCLUSIONS

Rural-urban health disparities for burden of mood disorders and obesity are independent of socioeconomic status and HCU in a Midwestern community. It is important to assess potential regional heterogeneity of rural-urban disparities on health outcomes.

Mining news media for understanding public health concerns

INTRODUCTION

News media play an important role in raising public awareness, framing public opinions, affecting policy formulation, and acknowledgment of public health issues. Traditional qualitative content analysis for news sentiments and focuses are time-consuming and may not efficiently convey sentiments nor the focuses of news media.

METHODS

We used descriptive statistics and state-of-art text mining to conduct sentiment analysis and topic modeling, to efficiently analyze over 3 million Reuters news articles during 2007-2017 for identifying their coverage, sentiments, and focuses for public health issues. Based on the top keywords from public health scientific journals, we identified 10 major public health issues (i.e., "air pollution," "alcohol drinking," "asthma," "depression," "diet," "exercise," "obesity," "pregnancy," "sexual behavior," and "smoking").

RESULTS

The news coverage for seven public health issues, "Smoking," "Exercise," "Alcohol drinking," "Diet," "Obesity," "Depression," and "Asthma" decreased over time. The news coverage for "Sexual behavior," "Pregnancy," and "Air pollution" fluctuated during 2007-2017. The sentiments of the news articles for three of the public health issues, "exercise," "alcohol drinking," and "diet" were predominately positive and associated such as "energy." Sentiments for the remaining seven public health issues were mainly negative, linked to negative terms, e.g., diseases. The results of topic modeling reflected the media's focus on public health issues.

CONCLUSIONS

Text mining methods may address the limitations of traditional qualitative approaches. Using big data to understand public health needs is a novel approach that could help clinical and translational science awards programs focus on community-engaged research efforts to address community priorities.

Public feedback on a proposed statewide virtual translational research community

Introduction:

Researchers have explored using the internet and social media to recruit participants to specific research projects. Less systematic work has been done to inform the engagement of large populations in virtual communities to advance clinical and translational science. We report on our first step to use social media to engage Minnesota residents by studying the willingness of participants to engage in a virtual (Facebook) community about the concepts of health and health-related research.

Methods:

Data were collected at the 2018 Minnesota State Fair using a cross-sectional, 46-item survey with assessment including sociodemographics and willingness to engage in a Facebook group for health-related research. Quantitative analysis included univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. Content analysis was used to generate themes from open-ended survey responses.

Results:

Five hundred people completed the survey; after data cleaning, 418 participant responses informed this report. A majority were younger than age 50 (73%), female (66%), and married/partnered (54%). Overall, 46% of participants agreed/strongly agreed they are willing to join the Facebook group. Multivariate logistic regression identified social media use over the past 6 months as the sole variable independently associated with willingness to join the Facebook group (once a day vs. never or rarely OR = 1.82 (0.86, 3.88), several hours a day vs. never or rarely OR = 2.17 (1.17, 4.02, overall p-value 0.048).

Conclusion:

Facebook holds potential for reaching a broader community, democratizing access to and engagement with clinical and translational research. Social media infrastructure and content could be disseminated to other institutions with Clinical and Translational Science Awards.

Evaluation of the Pint of Science festival in Thailand

BACKGROUND

The Pint of Science festival is the biggest annual international science festival. In May 2017, we coordinated the first Pint of Science festival in Thailand and reported our initial reflections. Building on this work, we set out to evaluate more systematically events conducted in 2018.

METHODS

In 2018, we conducted Pint of Science events at four different locations in Bangkok. Overall, there were 18 talks held over six event-days in 2018. We administered 180 self-reported questionnaires as well as conducted 11 semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion with audience members and speakers.

RESULTS

Of the 180 questionnaires handed out, 125 attendees completed the questionnaire. The majority of attendees came because they were interested in science (68.0%), to learn something new (46.4%) and to enjoy themselves (44.8%). Our qualitative results confirm the quantitative findings. In addition, speakers viewed that they benefited by improving their communication skills and having the opportunity to network with scientists and non-scientists. Speakers also mentioned that such events were a good means to engage with the public, can improve the visibility of their work and potentially attract more funding. To improve the Pint of Science activities, audience members suggested to include a more diverse range of topics, more collaborations with other local research institutions and to hold the event at larger venues.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that Pint of Science was well received in Bangkok with recommendations to improve minor issues related to practicalities and logistics.