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Public Health Readiness for Citizen Science: Health Department Experiences

Supporting Files
File Language:
English


Details

  • Alternative Title:
    J Public Health Manag Pract
  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Objective.

    To examine U.S. health department experiences with citizen science.

    Design.

    In 2019, we conducted a national survey of 272 local health department (LHD) representatives about knowledge and attitudes, readiness, experiences, and barriers related to citizen science (response rate=45%).

    Setting:

    Local health departments in the United States in 2019

    Participants:

    Local health department (LHD) representatives

    Main outcome measures:

    Knowledge and attitudes, readiness, experiences, and barriers related to citizen science.

    Results.

    Sixty-two percent of respondents reported LHD experience with citizen science, in areas such as health promotion, emergency preparedness, and environmental health. LHDs in large jurisdictions (78%) were more likely to report staff familiarity with citizen science compared to small (51%) and medium (59%) jurisdictions (P=0.01). While 64% reported readiness for citizen science, only 32% reported readiness for community-led activities. We found LHDs using citizen science more for community engagement activities such as public education compared to data collection activities. Respondents indicated that staff education/training in citizen science methods, funding, and partners with relevant expertise were priority needs.

    Conclusions:

    LHDs have leveraged citizen science for community engagement, but barriers to technical uses remain.

  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    J Public Health Manag Pract. 29(4):464-472
  • Pubmed ID:
    36214659
  • Pubmed Central ID:
    PMC10082856
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Funding:
    HHSD200201692420C/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
  • Volume:
    29
  • Issue:
    4
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha256:b4a11f0ab158c60bf46a9b7988e99d88e349fd87f21a0da3e72c634b01c6e97e
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 137.76 KB ]
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