Balancing community and university aims in community-based participatory research: a Pacific Islander youth study

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) holds the promise of improving the planning, conduct, and long-term translation of research findings into community settings.

This 2-year, exploratory study applied CBPR structures and processes to the identification of individual, cultural and community factors associated with obesity among Pacific Islander (PI) youth in Southern California.

We describe the CBPR principles and strategies used by a community-university partnership to develop, implement, and report on the findings from assessments of obesity, physical activity, and nutritional intake among PI youth.

Although CBPR planning processes led to successes in community-based youth recruitment and retention, we learned key lessons regarding implementation of tailored assessment protocols, often involving problems arising from the university side of the CBPR collaborative.

CBPR has its strengths and limits; more studies are needed that report on processes to increase our understanding of how to balance research rigor with community sustainability.