Involving Community Health Workers in the Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities Research Projects: Benefits and Challenges

Understanding the benefits and challenges of including community health workers (CHWs) in health disparities research can improve planning and delivery of culturally appropriate interventions. Representatives from 18 projects from the Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities (CPHHD) initiative completed an online questionnaire about the benefits and challenges of involving CHWs in their research. Eight emergent themes were classified into two categories: 1) Personal qualities and background CHWs bring to research including community knowledge and cultural sensitivity to improve recruitment and effectiveness of interventions; and 2) Workplace demands of CHWs including human resource policies and processes, research skills/background (training needs), and oversight despite distance. These findings demonstrate the benefits of involving CHWs in research and draw attention to the hiring, training, and oversight of CHWs and subsequent challenges. Additional research is needed to understand interactions between project staff and CHWs better and to identify best practices to involve CHWs in research.