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Biomedical subjects

Shobha Srinivasan

Publications and source records attributed to Shobha Srinivasan.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Evolving partnerships in community.

In recent years there have been a significant number of publications on the benefits and challenges of community-based participatory research (CBPR). In this introduction we give an overview of three projects presented in this mini-monograph and highlight their commonalities and differences in developing community-university partnerships. While the studies presented here were not required to use CBPR strategies in their work, they did engage community members in a participatory manner. In this mini-monograph we examine how these multifaceted research questions are addressed while simultaneously negotiating complex relationships among researchers and communities as they strive for a more equitable partnership--not only in the distribution of resources but also in power/authority, the process of research, and its outcome. The three papers in this mini-monograph offer insights into various ways of forming, working, and sustaining community-university partnerships in conducting CBPR. They illustrate both the potential benefits and some of the challenges involved with establishing partnerships between community groups and researchers committed to the mutual goal of promoting environmental health. They suggest the importance of nonprescriptive frameworks for conducting community-based participatory research that focuses on more equitable power relationships to address health disparities to help alleviate environmental health problems.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2004

Cardiovascular health among Asian Indians (CHAI): a community research project.

The object of this research was to assess cardiovascular (CV) risks in Asian Indians in California. We conducted eight focus groups and a pilot survey using community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods. Focus groups were held in six communities. Surveys were conducted by telephone or in person in areas selected for high population densities of Asian Indians. We selected focus group subjects by snowball sampling (n = 57). We held six English and two Punjabi groups. We used a surname-based phone list from three area codes for telephone interviews (n = 254). We added 50 in-person interviews for comparison (total n = 304) and did 50 interviews in Punjabi. We held community meetings for dissemination. Focus groups discussed CV risks; themes developed aided survey development. In-person and telephone surveys were feasible. Telephone surveys were more gender-balanced and people more often answered alcohol, tobacco, and income questions. Self-reported prevalences for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes were 20.4, 35.3 and 10.6%, respectively. Only 11.9% of persons reported ever smoking cigarettes. It was concluded that CBPR methods were effective in this exploratory study assessing CV risks in Asian Indians. Hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes were more prevalent in participants than the population average; other risk factors were less common (tobacco).

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Knowledge and practice: the risk of cardiovascular disease among Asian Indians. Results from focus groups conducted in Asian Indian communities in Northern California.

OBJECTIVE: The focus groups were utilized to gather information on the perceptions of cardiovascular risk within the Asian Indian community, and to identify opportunities to design health promotion and intervention programs for Asian Indian communities. DESIGN: Qualitative methods were utilized to obtain perceptions of cardiovascular risk within 3 Asian Indian communities. Eight focus groups were conducted in either English or Punjabi. SETTING: These focus groups were conducted as part of a 3-year community-based participatory research project examining cardiovascular risk factors among the Asian Indian population in Northern California. PARTICIPANTS: Focus group participants were selected through referrals from community-based organizations, postings in local community centers, and businesses. Fifty-seven men and women were recruited using snowball sampling. RESULTS: Six themes emerged from the focus groups: knowledge of cardiovascular disease, health and cultural concerns regarding diet, physical activity levels, stress as a factor for cardiovascular disease, acculturation concerns, and cardiovascular prevention ideas. CONCLUSIONS: The use of focus groups was an effective method for gathering information on perceptions of cardiovascular risk, and collecting information on risk behaviors within these Asian Indian communities. In this study, we found that psychosocial and cultural factors, especially cultural issues concerning stress and acculturation, surfaced as key elements across all 8 focus groups.

Acculturation↗
PubMed2003

Creating healthy communities, healthy homes, healthy people: initiating a research agenda on the built environment and public health.

Mounting evidence suggests physical and mental health problems relate to the built environment, including human-modified places such as homes, schools, workplaces, parks, industrial areas, farms, roads and highways. The public health relevance of the built environment requires examination. Preliminary research demonstrates the health benefits of sustainable communities. However, the impact of mediating and moderating factors within the built environment on health must be explored further. Given the complexity of the built environment, understanding its influence on human health requires a community-based, multilevel, interdisciplinary research approach. The authors offer recommendations, based upon a recent conference sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), for research and policy approaches, and suggest interagency research alliances for greater public health impact.

City Planning↗