Nuts and Bolts of Research Community Based Skills Development and Training Program

1. Nuts and Bolts of Research Community Based Skills Development and Training Program Aboriginal and Global Health Research Group Dr. Sangita Sharma Courses are supported by Aurora College and Aurora Research Institute

2. In the next 3 days, we’ll learn how to: • create a research question • pick the right tool to answer your question • collect answers to your question • make sense of the answers • ways to share research results • use the results to develop programs & policy

3. We will evaluate you based on: • attendance • class participation • quiz results • student assignments completed outside of class • development of small research project on a topic of the student's choice • quality of student research project as assessed by the instructor

4. What is research? • A way to find an answer to a question Why won’t my kids eat vegetables?

5. What is health research? Asking questions about things that affect the health of our family, community and region

6. Why research? • Can give us information about : • how to improve health • ways to avoid illness • how to improve delivery of health services • changes that could improve health policies

7. Examples: health research questions • How many people have diabetes? • How can we improve healthy food choices? • What keeps our community healthy?

8. What questions do you have about health in your community?

9. A research questionshould be… • important to you • not too broad or too narrow • able to be answered NOTE: Can be a single question or a series of questions

10. Example: health research questions • How many people are healthy or unhealthy in our community? • What makes people healthy or unhealthy? • Is it diet? • Is it the environment?

11. More examples • Are certain groups of people more likely (‘at risk’) to be unhealthy? • Children • Elders? • Men • Women? Can something be changed to improve health?

12. How research is conducted Otherwise known as….ETHICS All research should: • provide benefit • do no harm • be respectful • be confidential • involve informed consent of participants

13. University Ethics Researchers MUST have: • approval from community leadership • clearance from University Research Ethics Boards • research license (Nunavut and Northwest Territories)

14. Community Ethics Community and researchers should negotiate: • Ownership • Control • Access • Possession

15. Community Involvement • needed from the beginning • guide all parts of the research project • can include: • elders • community members • key community stakeholders • local health care professionals

16. How is your community involved in research?

17. Research Methods How we answer our research question = research methods They are very important…

18. …to avoid coming to the wrong conclusions.

19. Research Methods There 2 main types of research methods: • Qualitative = spoken word to describe opinions, feelings, beliefs, etc.. • Quantitative = counting numbers Sometimes we need both = Mixed Methods

20. Example: Quantitative Approach • How many children do you have? • How many of them eat vegetables?

21. Example: Qualitative approach • What do your children like about vegetables? • How do you plan your family’s meals? “I hope we can sell everything before it’s time for mom to make dinner.”

22. Mixed Methods Counts: Three of the ten mothers said their children did not eat vegetables. Words: All the mothers said the high prices and lack of availability made it difficult to offer vegetables regularly to their children.

23. Exercise 2 Which method would you use to answer the following questions? Discuss with your neighbour if you would use quantitative, quantitative or mixed methods

24. Selecting Participants • Who do we need to participate in the study based on our question? • Is the question about: • the whole community? • a specific group like women or children?

25. Exercise #3 Group brain storming activity: We want to know how much milk children aged 4years old drink? Who are the participants in this study and why

26. Collecting the Data The answers to our research questions = DATA Once we decide on the method then we need to figure out… HOW TO COLLECT the data.

27. Exercise #4 In three different people Ask each person to recall what they ate from 8am in the morning to 8pm in the evening of that day Use the skills of questioning that were discussed earlier today

28. Data Collection Exercise • Questions about the data collection exercise. • Review of data collection forms.

29. Things to Consider • What kind of data do you need? • Who will you get your data from? • Where will you get your data? • How much do you need? • When do you need to collect?

30. Kinds of data There are different kinds: • Data you collect yourself with: • questionnaires • interviews • measurements

31. Kinds of data There are different kinds: • Data already available from: • Statistics Canada reports • health records • population numbers from INAC or Statistics Canada

32. Data Collection Strategy workplace schools homes Participants can come from… grocery store youth party houses community events

33. Exercise?? • This will be day two so you could have them brainstorm a data collection strategy based on one of the questions they discussed the day before.

34. Analysis: Qualitative data • Put together all written notes from interviews or focus groups • Look for themes among answers • Can count the number of similar type of responses • Can support the numbers from the findings

35. Analysis: Quantitative data Can describe the data by using: • Counts = 7 moms… • Proportions= 3/10 moms… • Percentages = 30% of moms… ..said their children did not eat vegetables Moms younger than 25 yrs said their children did not eat vegetables • Trends=

36. Analysis: Quantitative data risk factors preventive factors program participation & the illness/outcome Look for ‘relationships’ between

37. Sharing the research findings • Plans should be developed in partnership with community advisory board • Ways to share findings: • websites • radio • community presentations • reports • posters • videos

38. Strategy to share findings program directors school leaders families Findings can be shared with … store owners youth party houses health care professionals community

39. What different ways have you heard about research findings?

40. Knowledge Transfer = Getting the research findings to those who can use them to make change in programs or policy: • Community leaders • Healthcare professionals • Community • Program developers • Policy makers • Other researchers

41. Capacity Building Research projects should include: • training opportunities • skill development • hiring of community staff members • local workshops

42. Review & Questions?? THANK YOU!! Gita Sharma, Megan Lukasewic & Francis Zotor Aboriginal & Global Health Research Group University of Alberta Department of Medicine Tel: 780-492-3214 Email: XXX