Measuring Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships: The Initial Development of an Assessment Instrument

Background: Although the partnership between academic researchers and community members is paramount to community-based research efforts, a limited number of measures exist to evaluate this construct. Of those in existence, no assessment measures include a comprehensive coverage of the many dimensions of partnerships. In addition, these measures were not designed through an extensive community-based participatory research (CBPR) model, in which the strengths of traditional assessment techniques were integrated with input from stakeholders. Objectives: The purpose of this article was to describe the creation of a measure to evaluate key dimensions of partnerships forged between researchers and community members using a CBPR approach to measurement development. Methods: The iterative process of developing this measure consisted of integrating valuable feedback from community partners and researchers, via multiple rounds of item sorting and qualitative interviewing. Results: The resultant measure, titled Partnership Assessment In community-based Research (PAIR), consists of 32 items, and comprises 5 dimensions: communication, collaboration, partnership values, benefits, and evaluation. The innovative process of using CBPR in the development of measures, the benefits of this approach, and the lessons learned are highlighted. Conclusions: PAIR was developed out of a need identified jointly by community members and researchers, and is intended to characterize the range of relationships between researchers and community members engaging in community-based research and programming.