The Library-Based Health Partnership Project

描述(由申请人提供)：减少癌症发病率、表现阶段和结果方面的种族和民族差异需要有弹性的战略，将医疗服务不足的社区与连续护理联系起来。以社区为基础的参与性研究有可能通过合作规划、试验和发现的过程产生这样的战略。拟议的皇后区图书馆健康链接计划旨在测试综合参与式研究方法的有效性，通过改善癌症预防、筛查和治疗干预措施的使用来减少差异。在该项目中，公共图书馆分馆为社区组织、教育、数据收集、规划和实施当地健康促进实验和传播成果提供了基地。我们将与皇后区63个分馆中的42个合作，每个分馆都为皇后区社区的不同群体提供服务。虽然我们将遵循相同的过程咨询协议，但每个社区都将开展最适合当地优先事项、文化、偏好和机会的独特健康促进活动。该项目旨在解决以下目标：(1)确定基于社区的参与性行动研究(PAR)是否比标准的“自上而下”计划在服务不足的社区中导致更有效的癌症预防和控制；(2)检查社区如何建立和维持当地开发的癌症预防和控制计划；(3)比较通过PAR制定的癌症预防和控制战略在转移到新社区时是否比标准战略更被广泛接受和更有效。该项目将分两个阶段进行。在第一阶段，我们将针对癌症需求的社区定制策略与自上而下的替代方案的健康行为结果进行比较。在第二阶段，我们将审查量身定制战略的可持续性和传播。皇后区的社区将被随机化，作为项目开发或传播的环境。将从多个来源收集数据，以审查参与过程以及个人、图书馆和社区各级的行为结果。参与该项目的核心组织包括四方合作伙伴关系，包括皇后区公共图书馆系统、皇后区癌症中心、美国皇后区癌症协会和纪念斯隆-凯特琳癌症中心。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Reduction of racial and ethnic disparities in cancer incidence, stage of presentation and outcome requires resilient strategies that link medically underserved communities into the continuum of care. Community- based participatory research has the potential to generate such strategies, through processes of collaborative planning, experimentation and discovery. The proposed Queens Library Health Link program is designed to test the efficacy of a comprehensive participatory research approach to reduce disparities by improving use of cancer prevention, screening and treatments interventions. In this project, public library branches provide a base for neighborhood organizing, education, data gathering, planning and implementation of local health promotion experiments and dissemination of results. We will work with 42 of the 63 branch libraries in Queens, each serving its own large, diverse segment of the Queens community. Although we will follow the same process consultation protocol, every community will undertake unique health promotion activities most suited to local priorities, cultures, preferences and opportunities. This project is designed to address the following aims: (1) To determine whether community-based participatory action research (PAR) leads to more effective cancer prevention and control in underserved communities compared to standard, "top-down" programs; (2) To examine how communities build upon and sustain locally-developed initiatives for cancer prevention and control; (3) To compare whether cancer prevention and control strategies developed through PAR are more widely accepted and more efficacious than standard strategies when they are transferred to new communities. This project will be carried out in two phases. In phase 1, we compare health behavioral outcomes of community-tailored strategies to address cancer needs with top-down alternatives. In phase 2, we examine the sustainability and dissemination of tailored strategies. Queens neighborhoods will be randomized to serve as settings for program development or dissemination. Data will be gathered from multiple sources to examine the participatory processes as well as behavioral outcomes at the individual, library and community levels. Core organizations involved in this project comprise a four-way partnership including the Queens Borough Public Library System, the Queens Cancer Center, the American Cancer Society of Queens, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.