TY - JOUR
T1 - Bioethics Recommendations to Increase Culturally Informed Global Health Survey Research
T2 - A Framework for Centering Community Engagement
AU - Getz, Madeleine J
AU - DeLouize, Alicia M
AU - Madimenos, Felicia C
AU - Uwizeye, Glorieuse
AU - Thayer, Zaneta M
AU - McKerracher, Luseadra J
AU - la Mora, Alejandra Núñez-de
AU - Josh Snodgrass, J
N1 - © 2025 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2025/2
Y1 - 2025/2
N2 - Global health projects-a source of inspiration and collaboration for applied human biology-benefit scholars, governments, NGOs, and aid organizations. While such research is intended to improve population health, direct benefits to individuals and communities are often excluded from published works and/or not considered in study designs and framing. This exclusion is increasingly recognized as a colonial legacy that hinders global health equity, particularly for Indigenous and other marginalized populations. Collaboration and community engagement are avenues for addressing these injustices, but they require planning, intention, and resources. Drawing on our collective experience and ongoing dialogues about community engagement in human biology, we propose six recommendations to increase equity in global health research. These include: (1) Incorporating trusted local specialists and stakeholders at all project levels; (2) disseminating health information to participants in strengths-based and culturally meaningful ways and contributing to solutions wherever possible; (3) investing in local healthcare, research, and infrastructure; (4) making study results/data available to stakeholders; (5) working within data frameworks that respect community sovereignty; and, (6) applying culturally informed bioethics frameworks. Our discussion highlights persistent needs to address community rights and benefits and to dismantle colonial legacies within global health and human biology while recognizing structural barriers to implementing these needed changes, particularly within the context of global health projects wherein human biologists are not the main power brokers or resource holders. When interfacing with global health, human biologists must continue to pursue health equity and decolonization through implementing critical, culturally informed bioethics frameworks centering community engagement.
AB - Global health projects-a source of inspiration and collaboration for applied human biology-benefit scholars, governments, NGOs, and aid organizations. While such research is intended to improve population health, direct benefits to individuals and communities are often excluded from published works and/or not considered in study designs and framing. This exclusion is increasingly recognized as a colonial legacy that hinders global health equity, particularly for Indigenous and other marginalized populations. Collaboration and community engagement are avenues for addressing these injustices, but they require planning, intention, and resources. Drawing on our collective experience and ongoing dialogues about community engagement in human biology, we propose six recommendations to increase equity in global health research. These include: (1) Incorporating trusted local specialists and stakeholders at all project levels; (2) disseminating health information to participants in strengths-based and culturally meaningful ways and contributing to solutions wherever possible; (3) investing in local healthcare, research, and infrastructure; (4) making study results/data available to stakeholders; (5) working within data frameworks that respect community sovereignty; and, (6) applying culturally informed bioethics frameworks. Our discussion highlights persistent needs to address community rights and benefits and to dismantle colonial legacies within global health and human biology while recognizing structural barriers to implementing these needed changes, particularly within the context of global health projects wherein human biologists are not the main power brokers or resource holders. When interfacing with global health, human biologists must continue to pursue health equity and decolonization through implementing critical, culturally informed bioethics frameworks centering community engagement.
KW - Bioethics
KW - Community Participation/methods
KW - Global Health/ethics
KW - Humans
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85218213944&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/ajhb.70011
DO - 10.1002/ajhb.70011
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 39962822
SN - 1042-0533
VL - 37
SP - e70011
JO - American Journal of Human Biology
JF - American Journal of Human Biology
IS - 2
M1 - e70011
ER -