Background Community engagement in research has the potential to support the development of meaningful health promotion interventions to address health inequities. People living in rural and remote areas face increased barriers to participation in health research and may be unjustly excluded from participation. It is necessary to understand the process of patient and public engagement from the perspective of community members to support partnered research in underserved areas. The aim of this project was to increase understanding on how to include community members from rural and remote areas as partners on research teams. Methods Using purposive sampling, we completed semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of 12 community members in rural and remote areas of northern British Columbia, Canada. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Following an integrated knowledge translation approach, an inductive thematic analysis was completed to incorporate researcher and knowledge user perspectives. Results The factors important to community members for becoming involved in research include: 1) relevance; 2) communication; and 3) empowering participation. The analysis suggests projects must be relevant to both communities and individuals. Most participants stated that they would not be interested in becoming partners on research projects that did not have a direct benefit or value for their communities. Participants expressed the need for clear expectations and clarification of preferred communication mechanisms. Communication must be regular, appropriate in length and content, and written in a language that is accessible. It is essential to ensure that community members are recognized as subject matter experts, to provide appropriate training on the research process, and to use research outcomes to support decision making. Conclusions To engage research partners in rural and remote communities, research questions and outcomes should be co-produced with community members. In-person relationships can help establish trust and bidirectional communication mechanisms are prudent throughout the research process, including the appropriate sharing of research findings. Although this project did not include community members as research team members or in the co-production of this research article, we present guidelines for research teams interested in adding a patient or public perspective to their integrated knowledge translation teams.

中文翻译：

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探索社区成员作为农村和偏远地区研究伙伴的观点。


背景 社区参与研究有可能支持制定有意义的健康促进干预措施，以解决健康不平等问题。生活在农村和偏远地区的人们在参与健康研究方面面临越来越多的障碍，并可能被不公正地排除在参与之外。有必要从社区成员的角度了解患者和公众参与的过程，以支持服务不足地区的合作研究。该项目的目的是加深对如何将农村和偏远地区的社区成员纳入研究团队合作伙伴的了解。方法 我们采用有目的抽样，对加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省北部农村和偏远地区的 12 名社区成员进行了半结构化访谈。采访内容均被录音并逐字转录。采用综合知识转化方法，完成了归纳主题分析，纳入了研究人员和知识用户的观点。结果 对于社区成员参与研究的重要因素包括： 1) 相关性； 2）沟通； 3) 赋予参与权。分析表明，项目必须与社区和个人相关。大多数参与者表示，他们不会有兴趣成为对其社区没有直接利益或价值的研究项目的合作伙伴。与会者表示需要明确的期望并澄清首选的沟通机制。沟通必须定期、长度和内容适当，并以易于理解的语言编写。 必须确保社区成员被视为主题专家，提供有关研究过程的适当培训，并利用研究成果支持决策。结论 为了吸引农村和偏远社区的研究合作伙伴，研究问题和结果应与社区成员共同制定。面对面的关系有助于建立信任，并且在整个研究过程中谨慎的双向沟通​​机制，包括适当分享研究成果。尽管该项目不包括社区成员作为研究团队成员或参与本研究文章的共同制作，但我们为有兴趣在其综合知识翻译团队中添加患者或公众视角的研究团队提供了指导方针。