Government and foundation investment in partnerships to achieve health and health system goals has grown substantially over the past 15 years. This investment and the recognition that building effective partnerships is very difficult have spurred an interest in partnership research. Studies of partnerships have been conducted primarily at the individual level, where the individual is the unit of analysis, not the partnership. While such research provides much useful information about partnership participants and their perceptions, analyses of data at the individual level may not provide accurate estimates of partnership-level processes. Research in which the partnership is the unit of analysis is required to identify factors that predict the ability of partnerships to effectively implement their plans, achieve short-term goals, and ultimately improve the health of communities. The authors recently concluded a national study of 63 partnerships, surveying a total of 815 partnership representatives. They will discuss the methodological challenges faced, decisions made, and lessons learned through the process of implementing a large-scale partnership-level research study. Specific areas to be covered include: choosing appropriate research questions, operationalizing and measuring concepts, establishing scale validity and reliability, designing the sampling frame, recruiting partnerships and partnership representatives, and analyzing and interpreting data.
Learning Objectives: 1) Articulate the distinction between individual-level and partnership-level data. 2) Identify key conceptual and methodological issues that should be considered in conducting partnership-level research
Keywords: Methodology, Partnerships
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.