Building Community Capacity for Qualitative Research to Improve Pregnancy Intention Screening

Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR), with an emphasis on co-learning and collaboration, holds promise for exploring the pregnancy intention (PI) screening needs of Latina patients and their health care providers. We describe a CBPR partnership exploring PI screening processes at a federally qualified health center in New York City, and lessons learned related to community participation, training, and collaboration between partners.

Methods: Stakeholders convened a community advisory board (CAB) to carry out CBPR. The CAB administered a biannual process evaluation to assess members’ experiences with the project.

Results: Despite challenges, the CAB prioritized community participation, training, and collaboration. At three time points, members reported gaining research skills (93%, 100%, 100%), and believing in the project’s potential to improve PI screening (100%, 100%, 100%).

Conclusions: Building capacity for CBPR requires providing iterative training, navigating discrepancies between CAB members’ interests and training needs, facilitating the meaningful participation of members with limited time and/or technical skills, and ensuring an equitable division of labor.