Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr;28(2):e70249.
doi: 10.1111/hex.70249.

Consumer-Led Codesign of an Effective Online Consumer and Community Involvement Audit Tool

Asvini K Subasinghe  1 , Jo Wilkie  2   3 , Rebekah Puls  3 , Tanya Tuffrey  2 , Jacqueline A Boyle  1
Affiliations

Consumer-Led Codesign of an Effective Online Consumer and Community Involvement Audit Tool

Asvini K Subasinghe et al. Health Expect. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction: There is evidence that consumer and community involvement (CCI) improves the quality and outcomes of health research. However, there is currently limited support for organisations to plan, implement and evaluate CCI activity. We aimed to codesign an audit tool that will enable organisations, researchers, community members and funders to measure the extent and nature of CCI in their respective settings. The tool was based on the Western Australian Health Translation Network's CCI Handbook.

Methods: We offered optional online workshops to inform participants about the study (total n = 9). Following this, we obtained feedback on the appropriateness of the Handbook and audit tool (n = 11). Finally, using Qualtrics surveys, we assessed the quality and effectiveness of the tool in evaluating CCI with 10 researchers, 6 funders, and 1 community member (total n = 17) sourced from networks within Monash University and the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science.

Results: Overall participants had a positive response to the audit tool and believed it had value in quantifying direct implementation of CCI in their workplaces. Gaps identified included the need to address health and research literacy of community members, culturally responsive approaches when working with community members from migrant backgrounds and an identified need for visual and digital resources.

Conclusions: Application of the tool enabled participants to identify their respective CCI strengths, weakness and opportunities for improving the meaningful involvement of community members and community in their research activities and to support equity in these processes.

Patient or public contribution: The public participated in workshops providing feedback on the general structure of the audit tool as well as testing it within their research projects.

Keywords: community involvement; consumer participation; equity; evaluation audit; health; literacy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Haldane V., Chuah F. L. H., Srivastava A., et al., “Community Participation in Health Services Development, Implementation, and Evaluation: A Systematic Review of Empowerment, Health, Community, and Process Outcomes,” PLoS One 14, no. 5 (2019): 0216112, 10.1371/journal.pone.0216112. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. The Cochrane Institute, Cochrane Consumer Engagement and Involvement Framework to 2027, https://consumers.cochrane.org/sites/consumers.cochrane.org/files/upload....
    1. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Strategy for Patient‐Oriented Research: Patient Engagement Framework, 2014, https://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/documents/spor_framework-en.pdf.
    1. National Institute for Health and Care Research, People in Research, accessed December 17, 2024, https://www.peopleinresearch.org/.
    1. PCORI Advisory Panel on Patient Engagement, Equity and Inclusion Guiding Engagement Principles, PCORI, 2021, accessed December 17, 2024, https://www.pcori.org/sites/default/files/Equity-and-Inclusion-Guiding-E....

LinkOut - more resources