Scoping review of community health participatory research projects in Ghana

Irene A Kretchy; Lydia O Okoibhole; Olutobi Adekunle Sanuade; Hannah Jennings; Daniel Ll Strachan; Ann Blandford; Francis Agyei; Paapa Asante; Olamide Todowede; Mawuli Kushitor; Kafui Adjaye-Gbewonyo; Daniel Arhinful; Leonard Baatiema; Ernestina Dankyi; Carlos S Grijalva-Eternod; Edward F Fottrell; Ama de-Graft Aikins

doi:10.1080/16549716.2022.2122304

Scoping review of community health participatory research projects in Ghana

Glob Health Action. 2022 Dec 31;15(1):2122304. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2022.2122304.

Authors

Irene A Kretchy¹, Lydia O Okoibhole², Olutobi Adekunle Sanuade³, Hannah Jennings⁴, Daniel Ll Strachan⁵, Ann Blandford⁶, Francis Agyei⁷, Paapa Asante⁷, Olamide Todowede⁸, Mawuli Kushitor⁹, Kafui Adjaye-Gbewonyo¹⁰, Daniel Arhinful¹¹, Leonard Baatiema¹², Ernestina Dankyi¹³, Carlos S Grijalva-Eternod^{2

14}, Edward F Fottrell², Ama de-Graft Aikins¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
² Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK.
³ Department of Population Health Sciences, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
⁴ Department of Health Sciences, University of York and Hull York Medical School, York, UK.
⁵ Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁶ Department of Computer Science, UCLIC, University College London, London, UK.
⁷ Department of Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana.
⁸ School of Health Sciences, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁹ Department of Health Policy Planning and Management, School of Public Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana.
¹⁰ Faculty of Education, Health and Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, UK.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
¹² Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health, Planning and ManagementUniversity of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
¹³ Centre for Social Policy Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
¹⁴ Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
¹⁵ Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London, London, UK.

Abstract

Background: Community health participation is an essential tool in health research and management where community members, researchers and other relevant stakeholders contribute to the decision-making processes. Though community participation processes can be complex and challenging, evidence from previous studies have reported significant value of engaging with community in community health projects.

Objective: To identify the nature and extent of community involvement in community health participatory research (CHPR) projects in Ghana and draw lessons for participatory design of a new project on diabetes intervention in Accra called the Contextual Awareness Response and Evaluation (CARE) diabetes project.

Methods: A scoping review of relevant publications on CHPR projects in Ghana which had a participatory component was undertaken. PubMed, PsycINFO, African Journal Online, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Humanities International Complete and Google Scholar were searched for articles published between January 1950 and October 2021. Levac et al.'s (2010) methodological framework for scoping reviews was used to select, collate and characterise the data.

Results: Fifteen studies were included in this review of CHPR projects from multiple disciplines. Participants included community health workers, patients, caregivers, policymakers, community groups, service users and providers. Based on Pretty's participation typology, several themes were identified in relation to the involvement of participants in the identified studies. The highest levels of participation were found in two studies in the diagnosis, four in the development, five in the implementation and three in the evaluation phases of projects. Community participation across all studies was assessed as low overall.

Conclusion: This review showed that community participation is essential in the acceptability and feasibility of research projects in Ghana and highlighted community participation's role in the diagnosis, development, implementation and evaluation stages of projects. Lessons from this review will be considered in the development, implementation, and future evaluation of the CARE diabetes project.

Keywords: Developing country; diabetes; engagement; non-communicable diseases; sub-Saharan Africa.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Community Participation
Community-Based Participatory Research*
Ghana
Humans
Public Health*

Grants and funding

MR/T029919/1/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom