Community-structures that facilitate engagement in health research: Ifakara Health Research Institute-Bagamoyo case study [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]
Background: Involvement of communities in health research has been at the forefront of ethical conduct of research Worldwide. Many scholars put forward different ways of engaging communities in health research, debates on the levels of engagement, who should be engaged in the community and how, stil...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
F1000 Research Ltd
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Open Research Africa |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://openresearchafrica.org/articles/4-13/v2 |
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| Summary: | Background: Involvement of communities in health research has been at the forefront of ethical conduct of research Worldwide. Many scholars put forward different ways of engaging communities in health research, debates on the levels of engagement, who should be engaged in the community and how, still persist. At the Ifakara Health Research Institute (IHI) in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Different approaches to engaging with the community in health research have been used over the last decade. The present research was aimed to describe the nature of community structures, that could be engaged in health research at the Ifakara Health Institute. Methods: Data collection was undertaken in between February 2019 and December 2019.A total of 25 interviews in which 19 were In-Depth Interviews, and 6 were Focus Group Discussions were carried out. Respondents were those previously participated in IHI research. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using framework analysis. Results: Different community structures including; village executive officers, community health workers, hamlet leaders, and community advisory board were involved in engagement activities. Approaches used as per the findings; community-level public meetings, information giving at household level/health facilities, the outpatient attendance at hospital/dispensary, Health District Coordinators, village leaders/representatives and routine health care campaigns; such as Tuberculosis day (TB day), Malaria day and HIV day. Reported weaknesses were inconsistence research feedback, insufficient engagement with participants about specific research projects are recruited into and false promises by researchers to community stakeholders. Conclusion: The results emerged the need to strengthen community engagement system at IHI, which require coordination of engagement at the institute and across different research activities. The current approach, seems inadequate but also is very challenging due to minimal opportunities for interactions and for deeper levels of engagement. Recommendations to use other methods such as mass media to reach larger populations is more appropriate than ever. |
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| ISSN: | 2752-6925 |