How can community engagement in health research be strengthened for infectious disease outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa? A scoping review of the literature
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC
Abstract
Community engagement (CE) is a well-established practical and scholarly field, recognised as core to
the science and ethics of health research, for which researchers and practitioners have increasingly asked questions
about desired standards and evaluation. In infectious disease outbreak contexts, questions may be more complex.
However, it is unclear what body of knowledge has been developed for CE specifically as it applies to emerging
infectious diseases. This scoping review seeks to describe (1) How CE has been conceptualised and understood; and
(2) What conclusions have research teams reached on the effectiveness of CE in these settings, including challenges
and facilitators.We used a scoping review framework by Arksey and O’Malley (Int J Soc Res Methodol 8:19–32, 2005) to
structure our review. We conducted a brainstorming session and initial trial search to inform the protocol, search
terms, and strategy. Three researchers discussed, developed and applied agreed screening tools and selection
criteria to the final search results. Five researchers used the screening tools to screen abstracts and full text for
inclusion by consensus. Additional publications were sought from references of retrieved publications and an
expert call for literature. We analysed and reported emerging themes qualitatively.
Description
Keywords
Community engagement, Health research, Infectious disease, Sub-Saharan Africa, Epidemics
Citation
Vanderslott, S. et al. (2021). How can community engagement in health research be strengthened for infectious disease outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa? A scoping review of the literature. BMC Public Health 21(1),633. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10348-0