TY - JOUR
T1 - Using Garden Cafés to engage community stakeholders in health research
AU - Balls-Berry, Joyce E.
AU - Sinicrope, Pamela S.
AU - Valdez Soto, Miguel A.
AU - Albertie, Monica L.
AU - Lafflam, Rene
AU - Major-Elechi, Brittny T.
AU - Juhn, Young J.
AU - Brockman, Tabetha A.
AU - Bock, Martha J.
AU - Patten, Christi A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This publication was made possible by CTSA Grant Number UL1TR002377 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NIH. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Michelle Lewis and Elizabeth Burke for editing and formatting assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Balls-Berry et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2018/8
Y1 - 2018/8
N2 - Science Cafés, informal venues to promote bidirectional dialog, inquiry and learning about science between community members, scientists, healthcare and service providers, hold promise as an innovative tool for healthcare researchers and community members to improve health outcomes, especially among populations with health disparities. However, the process of optimizing science cafés is under-studied. We describe the pilot evaluation of a series of Science Cafés, called Garden Cafés (n = 9), conducted from September 2015 through April 2016 in Olmsted County, MN and Duval County, FL to connect Mayo Clinic researchers and local service providers with the community. Selection of discussion topics was guided by a county health needs assessment, which identified community priorities. Before leaving the events, community participants completed a brief anonymous survey assessing sociodemographics and their knowledge of research benefits, readiness to participate as a partner in health research, and health and science literacy confidence. Of the 112 attendees who responded, 51% were female and 51% were Black. Respondents reported that participating in the event significantly improved (all at p<0.001) their understanding on all three measures. Preliminary findings suggest that Garden Cafés are an effective forum to increase community understanding and disposition to collaborate in health research, especially in members from diverse backgrounds.
AB - Science Cafés, informal venues to promote bidirectional dialog, inquiry and learning about science between community members, scientists, healthcare and service providers, hold promise as an innovative tool for healthcare researchers and community members to improve health outcomes, especially among populations with health disparities. However, the process of optimizing science cafés is under-studied. We describe the pilot evaluation of a series of Science Cafés, called Garden Cafés (n = 9), conducted from September 2015 through April 2016 in Olmsted County, MN and Duval County, FL to connect Mayo Clinic researchers and local service providers with the community. Selection of discussion topics was guided by a county health needs assessment, which identified community priorities. Before leaving the events, community participants completed a brief anonymous survey assessing sociodemographics and their knowledge of research benefits, readiness to participate as a partner in health research, and health and science literacy confidence. Of the 112 attendees who responded, 51% were female and 51% were Black. Respondents reported that participating in the event significantly improved (all at p<0.001) their understanding on all three measures. Preliminary findings suggest that Garden Cafés are an effective forum to increase community understanding and disposition to collaborate in health research, especially in members from diverse backgrounds.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052284222&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0200483
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0200483
M3 - Article
C2 - 30096153
AN - SCOPUS:85052284222
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 13
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 8
M1 - e0200483
ER -