Dr. Ramírez-Andreotta Speaks on NIEHS Environmental Health Chat Podcast
Sept. 27, 2023
Dr. Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta, UA SRC Research Translation Core Principal Investigator, spoke on the September 27, 2023 episode of the NIEHS Environmental Health Chat Podcast, “Community-based Participatory Research for Structural Change”.
In the episode, Dr. Ramírez-Andreotta discusses how participatory research can generate change in the social, economic, and political structures that drive many environmental health disparities. She describes strategies scientists can use to design projects that can prompt structural change and how she incorporates those strategies into her own research.
Many low-income communities of color experience disproportionate exposure to pollution and its related health effects. To help address these disparities, scientists may include community members in research by inviting them to help develop research questions, collect data, and interpret results.
Commonly known as community-based participatory research, this approach can increase residents’ knowledge of environmental health risks and help them take action to reduce harmful exposures. However, many of these disproportionate exposures are the result of broader systems and cannot be reduced by personal behavior change alone.