Learning Objectives: Describe key factors relating to a successful partnership between rural public health agencies and a metropolitan University.
Abstract: Objective: Rural public health agency staff and University researchers formed a collaborative partnership to explore the association between local secondhand smoke policy efforts and the opinions of residents in 17 rural counties. The University had provided evaluation technical assistance for these public health agencies through state tobacco endowment funding, which provided the opportunity to collaborate on this project.
Methods: Public health agencies and the University shared the costs for this project. The University held phone conferences to gather feedback from agency staff on survey content and held trainings on conducting mailed surveys across the state. Local public health staff assembled mailings and tracked survey responses. University staff developed two surveys, entered and analyzed data.
Results: Rural public health agencies benefited from this project because they received assistance with survey development and analysis and were able to obtain high-quality local opinion data. Agencies could then use their community data to plan future policy work and to inform local key decision-makers about their residents' opinions. University researchers valued the insights of agency staff in order to make the survey content significant for each community. University researchers also benefited from this project because they were able to analyze the combined survey data to make comparisons across multiple communities. Conclusion: By working together, both groups obtained data that was useful to their respective goals.
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