Abstract
Effectively translating evidence-based interventions into clinic and community settings is an increasing priority for health researchers. The successful dissemination and implementation (D&I) of interventions found efficacious ensures that major health funders such as the National Institutes of Health can demonstrate a return on investment in biomedical and behavioral research and that all populations receive maximum benefit from scientific discoveries. However, the products of research efficacy trials, the evidence-based interventions, are rarely designed with D&I in mind, rendering these interventions fundamentally misaligned with real-world settings. Further, while some evidence-based interventions have been successfully adapted for implementation in indigenous communities, few such examples have been published. Literature regarding the adoption and implementation of evidence-based interventions in indigenous communities is scarce, and the feasibility of scaling up successful interventions is poorly understood, potentially widening health disparities. The Intervention Research to Improve Native American Health (IRINAH) partners are generating efficacy data on community-responsive and engaged interventions that are also designed to facilitate D&I efforts, reducing the time between research to practice to benefit indigenous communities, should these interventions prove effective. In this manuscript, we provide an overview and key challenges of D&I science with indigenous communities. We then use IRINAH case studies to highlight strategies that IRINAH partners are using to plan for the scale-up and implementation of the studies. We conclude with recommendations to inform the next phase of IRINAH research efforts.
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Funding
This Supplemental Issue of Prevention Science was supported through funds from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Support for this paper included grants from NHLBI (R01HL117729, Jernigan, PI; R01HL126577, Kaholokula, PI), NIMHD (R01MD011266, Jernigan, PI), and NIAAA (R01AA022066, Dickerson and D’Amico, MPIs).
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The studies referenced in this article did not include animals.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in these studies.
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Blue Bird Jernigan, V., D’Amico, E.J. & Keawe’aimoku Kaholokula, J. Prevention Research with Indigenous Communities to Expedite Dissemination and Implementation Efforts. Prev Sci 21 (Suppl 1), 74–82 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-018-0951-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-018-0951-0