Methodological development of the CBPR conceptual model in promoting partnership in a multidisciplinary paediatric care project in western China

The community-based participatory research (CBPR) conceptual model has emerged as a popular methodological approach to facilitate collaboration between health professionals and community members to achieve project goals and improve health outcomes. Most existing literature has either introduced or explored the direct application of the CBPR conceptual model to paediatric care projects. Few have studied the mechanisms by which partnerships are built following this model. For the study described in this article, interviews were conducted with the health professionals and community participants on a research team about their application of the CBPR conceptual model to promote partnership in a project serving families of children with cancer in western China. Twenty themes identified from the results validated and expanded existing constructs and added new ones (challenges from COVID-19, enhanced stigma, researcher–practitioner divide, misunderstanding in the process and validity and research integrity issues) to the model. The findings presented can be used to enlighten those engaging in partnerships and the framework created can be directly applied to guide participants to identify critical issues at the beginning of a project as well as to reflect on the sustainability of the partnership both during and after the project.