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Updated: May 22, 2026

Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
Results from the Data & Democracy initiative to enhance community-based organization data and research capacity
Amy Carroll-Scott1, Peggy Toy, Roberta Wyn
1Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA. amy.carroll-scott@yale.edu
Objectives:
In an era of community-based participatory research and increased expectations for evidence-based practice, we evaluated an initiative designed to increase community-based organizations' data and research capacity through a 3-day train-the-trainer course on community health assessments.
Methods:
We employed a mixed method pre-post course evaluation design. Various data sources collected from 171 participants captured individual and organizational characteristics and pre-post course self-efficacy on 19 core skills, as well as behavior change 1 year later among a subsample of participants.
Results:
Before the course, participants reported limited previous experience with data and low self-efficacy in basic research skills. Immediately after the course, participants demonstrated statistically significant increases in data and research self-efficacy. The subsample reported application of community assessment skills to their work and increased use of data 1 year later.
Conclusions:
Results suggest that an intensive, short-term training program can achieve large immediate gains in data and research self-efficacy in community-based organization staff. In addition, they demonstrate initial evidence of longer-term behavior change related to use of data and research skills to support their community work.
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