Utilizing Community-Based Participatory Research to Increase Health Related Quality of Life in College Students

Year 1 Tasks: Implement a Community-Based Participatory Research undergraduate semester course in the department. This course will be in tandem with the Principal Investigator at the University of Maine. This will include meeting with the UK students in person and the UMaine students over the zoom video conferencing platform. I will serve as the advisor for the undergraduate students who are the committee leads for the intervention on campus. We will attend a 3-day workshop at the University of Maine with the students and PI at Maine. From the workshop, a pilot intervention will be collaboratively developed. Year 1 Deliverables: (1) Co-teach a 3-credit hour CBPR undergraduate course at UK during months 4-7, (2) weekly course meetings and bi-weekly research meetings throughout the project months 1-12, (3) identification of 3 lead undergraduate student partners by the end of month 6, (4) 3-day research workshop for co-I and 3 lead students during the month 8. Year 2 Tasks: Myself and community partner students will implement the designed CBPR intervention on the UK campus that is identical to the UMaine intervention. I will work with our community partners to facilitate implementation of the pilot program, collect pre and post data, evaluate the process, analyze data, and develop peer-reviewed materials for publication. Year 2 Deliverables: (1) bi-weekly research meetings throughout the months of 13-24, (2) scheduling pilot intervention implementation during months 8-12, (3) implementation of the intervention with the student partners during months 13-17, (4) collect both quantitative and qualitative data (focus groups, surveys, anthropometrics) paralleling the development and implementation of the intervention on months 9-17, (5) analyze and interpret data during months 15-18, (6) collaboratively publish results between months 19-22, (7) assist with development of a follow-up grant to disseminate intervention beyond the two universities between months 20-24.