Improving Rigor in a Door-to-Door Health Survey: A Participatory Approach in a Low-Income Latino Neighborhood.

BACKGROUND: Engaging community partners in research has the potential to make findings higher quality, more actionable, and more meaningful. Less rigorous approaches, often used by community-engaged partnerships, may diminish data quality.

OBJECTIVE: This study highlights the key guiding principles of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, particularly in regards to improving rigor, for a door-to-door health survey conducted by promotoras in a low-income, Latino neighborhood in San Jose, California.

METHODS: We describe the partnership formed to conduct the study and the participatory process used throughout the study in questionnaire and sample design, training, and survey administration that adheres to key CBPR principles.

LESSONS LEARNED: Our participatory approach required building the capacity of partners, having all partners weigh in on issues that arose in the field, enlisting outside expertise, being responsive to partner concerns while adhering to validated survey methods, simplifying sample design, incorporating expectations for data quality into training, and dedicating sufficient staffing to survey administration.

CONCLUSION: The procedures, materials, and tools used by the community-engaged partnership in this study can be replicated by other community partnerships seeking to improve the quality of data used for decision making, program planning, and resource allocation.