Buchanan and Fohner Use Electronic Health Records to Evaluate Community-Level Health Effects of Community-Based Participatory Research
Posted: 5/23/2024 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Trainee Zeruiah Buchanan (Epidemiology) and CSDE Affiliate Alison Fohner (Epidemiology) released an article with colleagues in Public Health, titled “Electronic health record reveals community-level cardiometabolic health benefits associated with 10 years of community-based participatory research“. While a major goal of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is to improve community health, it is unclear how to measure longstanding success of CBPR. Authors sought to determine the impact of ongoing CBPR on cardiometabolic health in participating communities, including in people not directly participating in research. They used linear mixed-effects modelling with electronic medical records from 2002 to 2012 from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, which provides health care to all Alaska Native people in southwestern Alaska, to compare rates of change in cardiometabolic risk factors between communities that did and did not participate in ongoing CBPR beginning in 2003.