HealthStreet makes giving people a voice in health research easy! And with more than 8,700+ people in the program, it is evident that they want to participate.
As a mother who has improved her and her family’s health through HealthStreet, Kenya represents all that HealthStreet has to offer.
Kenya is just one of more than 8,700 HealthStreet members who want to have their voices heard in health research.
She, like all HealthStreet members, has the opportunity to participate in studies directly relating to her health. Kenya let her voice be heard in numerous studies, spanning various topics including monitoring blood pressure and building healthier eating habits.
She’s not alone though. HealthStreet has linked over half of its members to a research study. With HealthStreet conducting all of the behind-the-scenes work, these opportunities are just a phone call or in-person visit away.
But, why is health research important?
Less than 2 percent of the population participates in health research, which means that only a small portion of people are being represented.
This creates a lack of representation in health research findings.
That’s why HealthStreet aims to bridge these gaps by engaging you – the community. To us, people aren’t just statistics in a health study, they’re a stakeholder in health discoveries.
Getting more people involved in health research increases the diversity of the studies. According to HealthStreet’s founding director, Dr. Linda Cottler, minority populations are vastly underrepresented in health research studies.
That’s not the case at HealthStreet. Females make up 58 percent of its member base, which also represents various races including:
In doing this, HealthStreet also hopes to increase the trust in health research. And it’s working. HealthStreet members want to participate in research. Out of the thousands of HealthStreet members, 96 percent are interested in research.
HealthStreet builds this trust by ensuring that members, like Kenya, know its doors are always open.
“I know {HealthStreet} has open arms and that you’ll help me out when I need you guys,” Kenya said.
HealthStreet is a community engagement program in the University of Florida Department of Epidemiology; located in both the UF College of Medicine and UF College of Public Health and Health Professions; and funded by the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Award UL1TR001427. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.