EMBOLDEN co-design: An open science approach to partnering with older adults and communities to develop a community program to enhance mobility among older adults in neighbourhoods facing health inequities
Description: An older adult's ability to move around and participate socially can impact their independence and quality of life. Decreased mobility contributes to social isolation and poor physical and mental health. Most community programs to promote healthy lifestyles for older adults have been designed without input by older adults and tested in populations that lack diversity, which limits real-world use and benefits. EMBOLDEN aimed to address this gap by working with older adults and community partners to create a community program that they can use to better their mobility. Knowledge users, whether they are older adults, health and social service providers in the community, or organizational decision-makers, must be able to access scientific evidence to be able to use scientific evidence. For this information to be truly useful and most likely to be taken up into practice, any documents or tools that share research findings with audiences outside of academia should be co-created in partnerships with knowledge users. The EMBOLDEN research team includes researchers, trainees, older adults, and community service providers. This team has experience in partnering with and supporting less-served communities. Our researchers have expertise in nursing, kinesiology, medicine, geography, epidemiology, sociology, humanities, public health, health policy, and applying research evidence to real-world practice. The Strategic Guiding Council (SGC) includes diverse older adults and community providers who identified the priorities for increasing older adults' mobility and community connections. Within the co-design, and subsequent implementation of the EMBOLDEN research program, the EMBOLDEN team has embraced and applied open science at every stage to ensure that our findings are most easily taken up into practice.
Amount: CA$25,000
Funding type: grant
Funder scheme: CIHR-IMHA Inclusive Research Excellence Prizes - Open Science
Start date: 2024-07-01
End date: 2025-06-30
Investigator: Sarah Neil-Sztramko
Institution: McMaster University
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 195221_1
OpenAlex ID: G1204771337