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Health equity in action: using community-engaged research to update an intervention promoting a healthy home food environment to Black/African American families

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Abstract

Purpose

Describe the method for conducting community-engaged research to identify needed changes for an existing evidence-based intervention, and prepare it for implementation in a community setting within the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center catchment area in an effort to achieve more equitable outcomes in diet-related disease risk factors.

Methods

The intervention, Family Eats, was developed over 10 years ago. It works directly with parents of Black/African American 9–12 year old children to create a healthy home food environment to support prevention of obesity and related cancers. Data collection with community stakeholders occurred through a series of  Community Advisory Board (CAB) meetings guided by the Delphi Technique, an iterative approach for gaining group consensus on a topic.

Results

Key information on needed changes and potential implementation strategies were identified. Perceived level of engagement among CAB members was high overall and in terms of both quantity and quality.

Conclusion

The Delphi Technique shows promise as a method for conducting community-engaged research that promotes engagement and identifies key information needed to adapt and implement an existing intervention in a community setting.

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Data availability

Selected summary data will be shared upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the CAB members who participated in this research.

Funding

The National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, funded this research through an administrative supplement to the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center (DLDCCC) (P30-CA125123-09REV; Heslop, MD, PI of primary grant to DLDCCC; Thompson, PhD, Project Lead of administrative supplement). This project was also supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service under Cooperative Agreement No. 58-3092-0-001. The contents of this work are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA, DLDCCC, or Baylor College of Medicine.

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by CC, JM, and DT. The first draft of the manuscript was written by DT and all authors commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Debbe Thompson.

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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Baylor College of Medicine (H-24673).

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All participants provided written informed consent prior to participating in data collection.

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Thompson, D., Callender, C., Dave, J.M. et al. Health equity in action: using community-engaged research to update an intervention promoting a healthy home food environment to Black/African American families. Cancer Causes Control 35, 311–321 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-023-01753-4

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