Let's Get Healthy! Health Awareness Through Public Participation in an Education and Research Exhibit

Abstract

Background Health information technology (HIT) offers a resource for public empowerment through tailored information. Objective Use interactive community health events to improve awareness of chronic disease risk factors while collecting data to improve health. Methods Let’s Get Healthy! is an education and research program in which participants visit interactive research stations to learn about their own health (diet, body composition, blood chemistry). HIT enables computerized data collection that presents participants with immediate results and tailored educational feedback. An anonymous wristband number links collected data in a population database. Results and Lessons Learned Communities tailor events to meet community health needs with volunteers trained to conduct research. Participants experience being a research participant and contribute to an anonymous population database for both traditional research purposes and open-source community use. Conclusions By integrating HIT with community involvement, health fairs become an interactive method for engaging communities in research and raising health awareness.

<p>Factors Influencing Public Knowledge and Willingness to Participate in Biomedical Research in Jordan: A National Survey</p>

“…In this case, the awareness and knowledge of the population about biomedical research are expected to enhance participation in biomedical and health-related studies. 17 , 18 …”

Experiential Learning Through Participatory Action Research in Public Health Supports Community-Based Training of Future Health Professionals

“…Based out of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU; Portland, Oregon), Let’s Get Healthy! implements local health fairs that consist of a collection of mobile education and research stations dealing with lifestyle and chronic disease (Marriott et al, 2012). The program debuted in 2007 to increase public awareness of biomedical research and demonstrate how public participation in research can advance biomedical science (Bunce et al, 2009; Carney et al, 2009; Marriott et al, 2012).…”

“…7068. Local health fairs were held in communities and schools, typically in school gyms, with research procedures described previously (Marriott et al, 2012). Briefly, for each fair, community or school organizers selected the interactive health stations that were available based on the needs and goals of their audience.…”

“…Scientists to study relationships among health variables (Chin, Lasarev, Marriott, & Shannon, 2012); to serve as population-based healthy controls for anthropometric and DNA-based studies and clinical trials (Purnell et al, 2014); to provide baseline and follow-up data for longitudinal studies (Domenico et al, 2012; Shannon, 2011); to pilot test new research protocols for use in community settings (Piper, 2011); and to evaluate the impact of health promotion efforts on public attitudes toward biomedical research (Marriott et al, 2012)…”

“…Furthermore, evaluation of community member attitudes toward conducting such research is surprisingly scarce (Rowe, 2006). Our previous work described an interactive health education and research program that has engaged over 14,000 individuals in health-based research since 2007 (Marriott et al, 2012). The mobile nature of this program, combined with its rapid growth, required a transition from relying on university-based health researchers to involving community members in the conduct of human subject research.…”