title: ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY IN HEALTH RESEARCH IN INDIA.
abstract: Community-engaged research approaches involve members of the community in various aspects of a research endeavor to improve the health of populations. Engaging the community in research is important in the development, dissemination, and evaluation of new interventions, technologies, and other medical advancements to improve population health globally. A review of published community-engaged research studies conducted in India was performed. Fifteen published studies were identified and reviewed to evaluate the state of community-engaged research in India. The review indicated that community-engaged research in India is limited. Most published community-engaged research focused on health promotion, especially in the prevention or management of HIV/AIDS and other STIs. Community members were involved in a variety of aspects of the research, but there was not one published article indicating that community members had defined the disease of focus. Community-engaged research often led to valuable insights into the views, experiences, and behaviors of community members and also led to increased community participation in health initiatives. It is anticipated that future community-engaged research will lead to improvements in global health through increased empowerment of communities and a better ability to implement new and innovative medical advances, technologies, and interventions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Evidence-Based Medicine and Health Outcomes Research, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA ; Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Kristen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Preuss
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Yashwant
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pathak
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine (PSM), Government Medical College Surat, Surat, India.
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Kosambiya
authors.affiliation: Division of Evidence-Based Medicine and Health Outcomes Research, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA ; Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Ambuj
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
keywords: Community-based participatory research; Community-engaged research; India; Participatory action research; Public health