Enhancing community participation in intervention research: farmworkers and agricultural chemicals in North Carolina.
The participation of affected communities in the development of public health intervention research improves project sustainability and effectiveness by making projects more relevant and acceptable to the communities. This article presents a multimode, multidomain model approach for community participation in different project components, which ensures the benefits of participation without requiring the same level of participation in every activity or by every community sector. A case study is used to illustrate the model, describing procedures for establishing and maintaining farmworker participation in developing an intervention to reduce exposure to chemicals. Farmworkers are a poor and underserved population for which the empowering and culturally appropriate benefits of community participation are especially needed. However, this population presents challenges for participatory health projects: geographic dispersion, ethnic diversity, lack of organization, sense of powerlessness, and communication and transportation difficulties. The lessons learned in this case extend the method and theory of community participation.
Arcury
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Center for Urban and Regional Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 27599, USA. tom_arcury@unc.edu
Austin
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Quandt
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Saavedra
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D000328:Adult; D000383:Agriculture / Q000193:education*; D003256:Community Participation; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D010575:Pesticides / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011610:Psychosocial Deprivation
D010575:Pesticides