Whose knowledge counts? Community involvement in gold standard methods for intervention design and evaluation
infectious diseases
INFECTIOUS DISEASES, RECRUITMENT
Trial research remains the gold standard approach for the design and testing of intervention effects. The evolution of trial methods in recent years aligns with attempts to acknowledge the importance of community involvement for health improvement. A recent systematic review of reviews [Community-led trials [However, not all contexts are suited to community-led trials, as they demand the long-term involvement of participants and a commitment from researchers to invest time and resources to build trust with participants. A more common approach to community involvement in trials is thus the completion of formative research which collects detailed information to aid trial design, including intervention content, delivery mechanisms and implementation, guides the recruitment and retention of study participants, and helps to determine the feasibility and acceptability of an intervention [Is it possible to expand and deepen our engagement with communities at scale during RCT trial design - especially for components such as intervention development? What methods will enable us to normalise more meaningful community engagement at the heart of trial practices? It is at this juncture that we seek to make our contribution. This paper reports on the adaptation of community conversation methodology to involve communities in mapping the contexts that would shape the feasibility and acceptability of participatory interventions to address childhood infectious diseases in Northern Nigeria and planning for trial implementation and intervention delivery.