At the core of public health service is the practice of engaging with the community especially when conducting research. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a dynamic and transformative approach that places community members at the heart of the research process – recognizing their expertise, needs, and aspirations as essential components of the research journey. One of the most crucial and final steps in a successful CBPR project is to communicate the study findings to those stakeholders and participants who were involved.
Social epidemiologist and community researcher Karen Lincoln, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational health with UCI Public Health, made a strong point to do just that. Last month, Lincoln and her team shared crucial findings from their Sleep Tight and Express Yourself studies with the research participants, community members, partner organizations, and other researchers.
The purpose of the Sleep Tight study was explore how sleep effected the brain clearance system – which clears out metabolic waste from our brains, optimally when we’re sleeping and the Express Yourself study was to determine if discrimination leads to premature aging in Black Americans.
Among their many valuable findings, the Sleep Tight study showed that more sleep is associated with low cognitive status because more sleep alters the brain clearance system – a novel finding. Too much sleep impairs the brain clearance system – so there is more fluid and waste left in the brain. This impacts a person’s cognitive score like the ability to remember and other functions.
This knowledge, especially findings that are unexpected, can not only help community members make informed decisions and advocate for their needs but also inspire future research to uncover hidden burdens impacting our communities.”
– Karen Lincoln, PhD
The Express Yourself study found that stress associated with racial discrimination does “get under our skin” by affecting genes, promoting chronic inflammation and reducing our immune response to diseases. However, a unique association was discovered. Black participants who experienced high levels of everyday discrimination and had high levels of cultural mistrust – described as having suspicion of White people in politics, law, interpersonal relations, education, and work – have lower molecular stress levels. In juxtaposition, those with high everyday discrimination and low cultural mistrust had high molecular stress levels. Therefore, those who reported as having cultural mistrust protected themselves from the negative health effects of racial discrimination.
“Disseminating our research findings back into the community of South Los Angeles ensures that the knowledge generated is shared with those who contributed to it, especially since they are the ones directly impacted by it,” says Lincoln. “This knowledge, especially findings that are unexpected, can not only help community members make informed decisions and advocate for their needs but also inspire future research to uncover hidden burdens impacting our communities.”
