Abstract Introduction Community engagement and involvement (CEI) have become increasingly relevant in research, as they help steer studies toward issues that matter to patients and the public, while also enhancing the impact, efficiency, and usefulness of results. Objective To describe the steps of the community engagement and involvement process among participants with chronic respiratory diseases and multimorbidity, based on the experience of the Projeto MultimorbidAde e soluções RESpiratórias (MARES) Project. Methods This process was planned with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through the Piloting the Guiding Principles for Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) initiative, involving research members from University College London (United Kingdom) and the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil). To initiate CEI planning, the research team first held 23 online meetings, organizing the process into seven main steps over 6 months: (1) Learning about the CEI methodology; (2) Defining the roles and stages of participation for CEI members; (3) Establishing eligibility criteria for CEI members; (4) Recruiting community members; (5) Developing a working agreement; (6) Discussing compensation for community members; and (7) Planning the total number of meetings and the context of the first meeting. All steps were carried out in the municipalities of São Carlos/SP and São Paulo/SP (Brazil), where the MARES project is conducted. To ensure inclusion of CEI members, meetings are held either in person or online. Results Of the 14 eligible members invited to the CEI, 9 agreed to participate (n = 2 male and n = 7 female). To date, 4 meetings have been held out of a planned total of 11. The meetings follow CEI principles, including building open relationships founded on trust and mutual benefit. Notable contributions from CEI members include: supporting the development of the study design, collaborating on the creation of educational booklets, participating in the definition of recruitment strategies, and engaging in research dissemination activities. Some challenges were also identified and addressed, such as organizing both online and in-person meetings, overcoming digital barriers, and the need to use accessible language. Conclusion Reporting the CEI experience in the MARES project will offer valuable insights into how to structure and conduct research that meets community needs, particularly in the context of chronic respiratory disease and multimorbidity. This initiative has the potential to promote the adoption of similar research models at national and global levels. This abstract is funded by: Professor John Hurst was funded by the NIHR (project reference 303125) using UK international development funding from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK government.
Schafauser et al. (Fri,) studied this question.