Community-Academic Team Teaching in a CBPR Course: Lessons Learned about Course Instruction.

BACKGROUND: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) involves community and academic partners working collaboratively to understand and address local challenges. Undergraduates who engage in CBPR through a course can learn valuable research and professional skills, but we found no studies describing the experiences of community and academic partner instructors who have co-taught undergraduate CBPR courses. We describe lessons the instructors learned from collaboratively teaching one such course. LESSONS LEARNED: The lessons we include highlight how community-academic team teaching can 1) provide unique opportunities to teach and model partnership and collaboration, 2) incorporate nontraditional learning opportunities for students to practice skills and engage in content reflection, 3) be challenged by differing community and academic priorities, and 4) surface power dynamics in the classroom that should be explicitly discussed. CONCLUSIONS: Community and academic partners can successfully team teach in an undergraduate CBPR course and encourage the development of important skills that can be transferable to the real world. Focusing on offering traditional and nontraditional learning opportunities and modelling partnership and collaboration can also facilitate this. Beyond these benefits, instructors considering a model like this should be prepared to intentionally engage in discussions within and outside the classroom about respective priorities and the ways in which knowledge that is traditionally valued in academic settings can create power dynamics in the classroom. Ultimately, structural supports, such as institutional funding for community partners and consideration of benefits to community partners and organizations beyond the research itself can facilitate these types of collaborations.

The potential distributional health and financial benefits of increased tobacco taxes in Ethiopia: Findings from a modeling study.

Ethiopia raised taxes on tobacco products in early 2020, increasing the overall price of the typical pack of cigarettes by about 67%. We quantify the potential impacts of Ethiopia's tobacco tax hike on various outcomes-life years, tax revenues, cigarette expenditures and catastrophic health expenditures (CHE). Using parameters like price elasticity of demand for cigarettes and smoking prevalence in Ethiopia from the existing literature and secondary data sources, we model the potential implications of the reform at the population level and for different wealth quintiles. We focus only on men since a small proportion of Ethiopian women smoke. Results indicate that Ethiopia's tax hike could induce a significant proportion of current smokers to quit smoking and thereby save almost eight million years of life in the current population. The reform is also likely to increase tax revenues by USD26 million in the first year after its introduction. The richest quintile will bear the greatest share of this higher tax burden and the poorest will bear the least. Additionally, deaths due to the main diseases associated with smoking will fall. This is expected to avert up to 173,000 CHE cases due to the out-of-pocket costs that would have been incurred in obtaining medical treatment. This analysis highlights that cigarette tax hikes in countries that have low smoking prevalence can reduce smoking even further, and thereby protect against the future health and financial costs of smoking. Importantly, the effects of these policies can be progressive across the income spectrum.

Key correlates of exclusive breastfeeding at three timepoints: Evidence from Ethiopia.

Aim: To compare factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) within 1 h of birth, within 3 days, and within the first 6 months post-birth. Methods: We used multivariate logistic regression models and data from "The Alive and Thrive Phase 2 Amhara Baseline Survey 2015" from Ethiopia (N = 3113). Results: Giving colostrum was strongly associated with EBF at all three time points, controlling for multiple confounders. Putting the baby to the breast before cleaning the baby and before cleaning the mother was significantly associated with EBF within 1 h and for the first 3 days. EBF within an hour of birth was more likely for girl babies than boy babies. Having a healthcare professional check whether the baby was sucking well was significantly associated with EBF 3 days post-birth. Conclusions: The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding within 1 h of birth and exclusively thereafter for 6 months, which can improve health outcomes for infants and children. In Ethiopia, many factors influence breastfeeding practices, but little is known about how these factors differ at various key timepoints in the 6 months after birth. Our study provides important information on correlates of EBF at three timepoints and shows that factors that are significantly correlated with EBF vary over time. Future research should assess the potential causal links among statistically significant associations between EBF and risk factors at various times between birth and 6 months of age. Ultimately, these findings have the potential to inform areas of intervention related to promoting EBF.

"Collaboration Toward One Collective Goal": A Mixed-Methods Study of Short-Term Learning Outcomes and Long-Term Impacts Among Students Participating in an Undergraduate Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Course.

Background: Research shows positive learning outcomes for students participating in service learning. However, the impacts of undergraduate student participation in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) courses are minimally studied. Methods: We used a triangulation mixed-methods design approach to analyze short- and long-term (1-5 years post-course) data collected from 59 undergraduate students across 5 cohorts of a CBPR course (2014-19). Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data and descriptive statistics and frequencies were generated to analyze the quantitative data. Results: We developed five key themes based on short-term qualitative data: integration of CBPR and traditional research skills; importance of community engagement in research; identity; accountability; and collaboration. Themes from qualitative course evaluations aligned with these findings. Long-term qualitative data revealed that former students gained research knowledge, research skills, and professional skills and then applied these in other settings. This aligns with quantitative findings, where >79% of respondents reported that course participation "extensively" improved their research skills. Post-course, students still reflected on the importance of community engagement in research and reported a substantially enhanced likelihood of civic engagement. Discussion/Conclusions: Students gained critical knowledge and skills that positively impact their ability to engage in community-based work well after the end of course participation. Some students reported considering research-oriented careers and graduate programs for the first time after course participation. Collaborative learning experiences with community partners and members encouraged students to reflect on research designs that center community voices. We stress here that community partnerships require extensive cultivation, but they can create opportunities to translate findings directly back to communities and provide numerous benefits to undergraduate students. We hope that our findings provide the information needed to consider pilot testing practice-based CBPR courses in a variety of public health training contexts.