Reframing Prevention Research through Community Agency: The HealthScience4ALL Approach

Abstract

Socioeconomically disadvantaged populations remain underrepresented in prevention research and are often insufficiently reached by conventional science communication, despite being the target population. This limits the effectiveness of preventive interventions and exacerbates existing health inequalities. HealthScience4ALL addresses this gap by repositioning communities as active agents in shaping prevention research and communication, instead of passive recipients of knowledge or interventions. The project is implemented in close collaboration with local partners and community-based organizations. It foregrounds community agency as a central driver of engagement, knowledge production, and sustainable participation. This is operationalized through a combination of Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE), outreach-oriented health science communication, and participatory research methods. Using a mobile research unit, the project brings low-threshold science communication formats into community settings. Through interactive activities and facilitated discussions, residents actively define which prevention topics are relevant, how they are framed, and how they should be communicated. Co-creation workshops enable participants to articulate lived experiences, negotiate meanings of health and prevention, and collectively identify barriers and enabling factors for research participation. By centering on community agency, HealthScience4ALL moves beyond deficit-driven perspectives and challenges conventional trickle-down models of science communication. Instead, it demonstrates how communities can act as co-producers of knowledge, shaping both content and processes of prevention research. This approach contributes to more context-sensitive, trusted, and ultimately more effective public health interventions, while offering transferable insights for engaging underserved populations in diverse urban settings.