Community Participation and Cultural Competence in Child Oral Health Research

Methods: Refugee and migrant community members were invited to participate in all stages of the research process as ‘community researchers'. This paper describes the culturally competent processes used to involve the community researchers in the thematic analysis of qualitative data. This iterative process included: immersion, coding, categorisation and generation of themes.

Results: Nine focus groups were conducted with Iraqi, Pakistani and Lebanese communities living in Melbourne, Australia. The findings revealed:

• Each community approached data analysis differently, depending on resources, relationships and interest in the research process

• Working in partnership helped develop new skills and build and strengthen individual and organisational capacity

• Similarities and differences existed between university and community researchers in the interpretation of data. All views were subsequently incorporated in the development of a community based intervention to prevent ECC and improve child oral health.

Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of investing in community based partnerships and involving community members in research. Culturally competent processes provide advanced insight essential in the interpretation and development of an appropriate intervention framework. Ensuring cultural competency at each stage of research contributes to increased research and community capacity, enhanced relevance and ultimately greater community benefit. Despite views that culturally competent approaches may add complexity to research, the enhanced quality of the results together with the benefits of reciprocal knowledge transfer are essential in generating best evidence to progress reduction of significant child oral health inequalities.