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Research Priorities to Advance Health Equity
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IN THIS SECTION
- National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity - The Delaware Focus |
Experts and community leaders have identified a number of research priorities to support efforts to advance health equity. Among the most important is that researchers need to shift from a disparities model to an equity model (Srinivasan & Williams, 2014). This means greater attention should be paid to social and structural determinants of health, rather than individual risk factors. Similarly, more attention should be placed on evaluating solutions to health inequities that are driven by social, economic, and environmental factors.
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Given some of the challenges highlighted above, research must be multi-disciplinary. Additionally, it is important to improve our research capacity for multi-factorial and multi-level analyses, as well as to address challenges related to statistical power and small sample sizes (Srinivasan & Williams, 2014). These methods require highly skilled statisticians and epidemiologists and often take more time and effort than traditional research, so building such a capacity requires targeted investments.
Improved research for health equity also requires meaningful community engagement and participation. Research is needed that reflects community priorities, is meaningful to the community, and is better connected to the lived experiences of the people most affected by health inequities (Knight, 2014).
Improved research for health equity also requires meaningful community engagement and participation. Research is needed that reflects community priorities, is meaningful to the community, and is better connected to the lived experiences of the people most affected by health inequities (Knight, 2014).
National Stakeholder Strategy For Achieving Health Equity
This report calls for investments in community-based participatory research and the evaluation of community originated intervention strategies (NPA, 2011). It also identified several specific objectives in this area, including the following:
- Identify and work with community-based organizations and programs to determine and disseminate replicable best and evidence-based practices for ending health disparities;
- Work with researchers and evaluators to develop useful and practical models for evaluating community-originated intervention strategies, including new metrics from interventions that reflect communities' immediate needs;
- Engage community members and enhance their capacity to be equal partners in the conceptualization, planning, design, implementation, interpretation, evaluation, and dissemination of public health interventions, programs, and initiatives; and
- Strengthen community ownership of data and research and evaluation products by promoting the principles of community-based participatory research (NPA, 2011, p. 135.)
“Knowledge transfer is challenging but obligatory. Often, findings that may be valuable to communities are published in journals, reports, and other formats that are not widely distributed to them or easily accessible to non-research audiences. Nontraditional media should be used to disseminate data and information to improve accessibility. Improving the health outcomes of minority and underserved communities will take the combined efforts of medical scientists, statisticians, anthropologists, economists, sociologists, epidemiologists, policy analysts, psychologists, social workers, community developers, and others working in collaboration with community organizations.” (NPA, 2011, p. 133)
The Delaware Focus
Delaware is making strides to conduct and translate community-based research. Delaware was recently awarded a multi-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to enhance the state’s capacity for clinical and translational research (click here for more). Specifically, the Delaware Clinical and Translational Research Program (DE-CTR ACCEL) is a partnership between the University of Delaware, Christiana Care Health System, Nemours Health and Prevention Services/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, and the Medical University of South Carolina. Its goal is to improve the state’s infrastructure and capacity for conducting research that leads to better clinical outcomes and applying knowledge about effective interventions in the clinical setting.
The DE-CTR is part of the ACCEL program, which represents a long-term research partnership that can be leveraged to enhance the research and evaluation capacity needed for health equity. More specifically, community engagement and outreach is a priority for the ACCEL program, and can be an important avenue for health equity-oriented research. For more information about the DE-CTR ACCEL program and related funding and research opportunities, click here.
The DE-CTR is part of the ACCEL program, which represents a long-term research partnership that can be leveraged to enhance the research and evaluation capacity needed for health equity. More specifically, community engagement and outreach is a priority for the ACCEL program, and can be an important avenue for health equity-oriented research. For more information about the DE-CTR ACCEL program and related funding and research opportunities, click here.