Community engagement approaches and lessons learned: a case study of the PRECISE pregnancy cohort study in Kenya
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Community engagement (CE) has been recommended as an important ethical consideration for health research to enhance informed consent and exchange knowledge between researchers and community members. The purpose of this paper is to describe how CE was developed and delivered for the PRECISE prospective pregnancy cohort study in Kenya. PRECISE enrolled pregnant women in antenatal care, followed them up to the postpartum period, and collected data and biological samples to enable the study of placental disorders in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially CE was aimed at informing the community about the study, establishing community-wide acceptance of the research and addressing concerns about biological sample collection to facilitate participation in the study. CE later evolved to be a platform for mutual learning aiming to deepen the community’s understanding of research principles and informed consent and providing a feedback loop to researchers. We engaged diverse stakeholders including health workers and managers, local administrators, religious and traditional leaders, older women, pregnant women, non-pregnant women and men. We utilized a variety of CE approaches and tools adapting to the specific contextual factors at the study sites. Achievements included widespread understanding of informed consent and research principles, clarification of misconceptions, and dispelling of fears regarding biological sample collection. The relationship with the community was strengthened evidenced by frequent inquiries and active participation in CE activities and the research study. For effective CE, we recommend involvement of community members in the CE team and continuous and adaptive CE throughout the study period.
Date Issued
2025-03-11
Date Acceptance
2025-02-24
Citation
Frontiers in Public Health, 2025, 13
ISSN
2296-2565
Publisher
Frontiers Media S.A.
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Public Health
Volume
13
Copyright Statement
© 2025 Wanje, Koech, Kinshella, Mwashigadi, Kombo, Maitha, Barreh, Mistry, Vidler, Craik, Volvert, von Dadelszen, Temmerman and The PRECISE Network. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40135158
Subjects
cohort studies
community engagement
community participation
HEALTH
Kenya
lessons learnt
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
pregnancy
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Science & Technology
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
1439150
Date Publish Online
2025-03-11