The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #66919

Elizabeth Prendergast, MS, CHES, Irene Tessaro, DrPH, Sheila Rye, MS, Carol Mangone, PhD, CHES, Nancy O'Hara Tompkins, PhD, Deborah E. Coen, MS CHES, and Shelby Brown, BA. Center for Healthy Communities, West Virginia University, 3040 University Avenue, Room 3341, PO Box 6275, Morgantown, WV 26506, 304-293-5184, eprendergast@hsc.wvu.edu

Rural areas of Appalachia are characterized as having a lack of resources with which to implement health promotion interventions. These communities are often characterized by their high rates of unemployment, poverty, and low educational attainment. This project, part of the newly funded Center for Healthy Communities at West Virginia University to address obesity prevention, introduces a participatory approach to mobilize community assets and resources to address obesity prevention in these "resource lacking" communities. The goal of the study is to increase physical activity and healthy eating among residents in three rural, distressed Appalachian communities, and enhance and maintain a strong cadre of local leaders who will advocate and implement relevant solutions to the health problem of obesity in their communities. A participatory model for enhancing community participation enables these communities to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based interventions for physical activity and healthy eating appropriate for their communities. The process emphasizes the engagement of community members in all phases of the study, including formative research designed to promote broad-based community-based participation, selecting appropriate targets of change (policies, institutions, individuals), implementing interventions, collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating findings. This project evaluates this participatory process in communities. Two study communities (one geographic community and one community of identity) participating in this project will be introduced along with the lessons learned in the process of community engagement and participation.

Learning Objectives:

• 1.Identify strategies for developing successful partnerships between researchers and communities.
• 2.List lessons learned from the process evaluation of participatory research.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.