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Public Health Readiness for Citizen Science: Health Department Experiences
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2023
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Source: J Public Health Manag Pract. 29(4):464-472
Details:
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Alternative Title:J Public Health Manag Pract
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Personal Author:
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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.
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Keywords:
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Source:
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Pubmed ID:36214659
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC10082856
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Document Type:
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Funding:
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Volume:29
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Issue:4
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Main Document Checksum:
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Download URL:
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File Type:
[PDF-137.76 KB]
