Community Action Research on Diabetes

Diabetes is conceptualized as a community problem in which social and cultural forces have a significant impact on community health (Kreuter et al. 2003). We use participatory community action methods to examine diabetes within a town where 23% of its Mexican American and Indigenous American citizens suffer from diabetes. Participatory action research refers to a general methodological approach that seeks to generate knowledge that is rigorous and can be used for social action (Reason and Bradbury 2001). During the fieldwork, a number of challenging issues had to be addressed including length of time required to conduct the research, requirements for including different types of expertise (consumer, business, and medical), and the sustainability of social interventions. Empirical results from the study, as well as the significant challenges of doing community health action research, will be explored in the presentation.

Citation:

Laurel Anderson and Julie L. Ozanne (2009) ,"Community Action Research on Diabetes", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 143-145.