Question

Community Involvement: When and how would you, as a public health professional who is looking to conduct a research proposal, involve a community in the research process? What would it depend on? Why might a community not be involved in the research process?

Answer 1

Involving a community in the research proposal is necessary because it brings a new perspective , values and competencies apart from having opinions and views of of beneficiaries and sufferers that can then be incorporated In research.

Community can be involved in many ways , from giving perspective and opinions to becoming an active subject if research who can contribute to research in effective manner.

Community involvement become imperative when research has bearing on the life of community, who might have to share the burden of harm . In such cases community involvement is necessary to avoid disproportionate share of benefits and harms among different subjects.

However, many a times a community may not be involved in research due to lack of researchers will to cooperate and seek their involvement. Moreover, sometimes community deny involvement due to fear of more harm due to involvement. Some researches have long term risk associated with health of community members and apathy of researchers in some of these cases led to negative attitude of community member towards such researches