Lessons on Resilient Research: Adapting the Tribal Turning Point Study to COVID-19

Tribal Turning Point (TTP) is a community-based randomized controlled trial of a lifestyle intervention to reduce risk factors for type 2 diabetes in Native youth. TTP began in 2018 and was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this paper we aimed to understand 1) how the pandemic impacted TTP's operations, and how the TTP team successfully adapted to these impacts; 2) how the effects of COVID-19 and our adaptations to them were similar or different across TTP's research sites; and 3) lessons learned from this experience that may help other Native health research teams be resilient in this and future crises. Using a collaborative mixed methods approach, this report explored five a priori domains of adaptation: intervention delivery, participant engagement, data collection, analytic strategies, and team operations. We derived three lessons learned: 1) ensure that support offered is flexible to differing needs and responsive to changes over time; 2) adapt collaboratively and iteratively while remaining rooted in community; and 3) recognize that relationships are the foundation of successful research.