Community-Based Participatory Research: A Lifeline to Achieve People-Centered Care

William E. Rosa^1*Jeffersson Santos^2,3Anita E. Agbeko⁴Crystal L. Barksdale⁵Scott Carvajal⁶Denise Dillard^7,8Ronit Elk^10,9Gail E. Emrick¹¹Francesca Gany^12,13Shena Gazaway¹⁴Jennifer Leng^12,13Melissa Mazor¹⁵Martha Moore-Monroy⁶Naveen Salins¹⁶Kendra Godwin¹⁷Nirmala Bhoo-Pathy¹⁸Juan P. Borda¹⁹Loreto Fernández-González²⁰Erica Mann^21,22Gilla K. Shapiro²³Matthew J Allsop²⁴Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable²⁵

• ¹Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, New York, United States
• ²Center for Community Health and Engaged Research, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, United States
• ³Grupo de Estudos em Metodologias Assistenciais de Enfermagem, School of Nursing, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Flagstaff, Brazil
• ⁴Department of Surgery, School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
• ⁵Division of Community Health and Population Science, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Bethesda, United States
• ⁶Center for Participatory Prevention, Evaluation and Action Research & Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
• ⁷Southcentral Foundation, Anchorage, United States
• ⁸Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University, Everett, United States
• ⁹Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States
• ¹⁰Division of Geriatrics, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States
• ¹¹Southeast Arizona Area Health Education Center, Nogales, United States
• ¹²Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities Service, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, United States
• ¹³Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, United States
• ¹⁴School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States
• ¹⁵Division of Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, United States
• ¹⁶Department of Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care, Kasturba Medical College Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education,, Manipal, India
• ¹⁷Medical Library, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, United States
• ¹⁸Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Practice, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• ¹⁹Department of Psychiatry, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
• ²⁰Instituto Oncologico Fundacion Arturo Lopez Perez, Providencia, Chile
• ²¹Global Cancer Disparities Initiative, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, United States
• ²²African Research Group for Oncology, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
• ²³Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Canada
• ²⁴University of Leeds School of Medicine, Leeds, United Kingdom
• ²⁵National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Bethesda, United States

People-centered care (PCC) represents a key paradigm shift in achieving universal health coverage and closing global public health divides. Amid growing global public health disparities, shifts in epidemiological disease burden, and evolving sociopolitical contexts that affect health promotionhealthcare delivery and research initiatives and research, there is an urgent need for public health scientists to develop community-rooted research strategies that uphold health promotion principles and sustain PCC. . Given recent U.S. government policy shifts –including the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, reductions in federal funding for health equity research, and withdrawal from the World Health Organization-there is an urgent need for public health scientists to develop community-rooted research strategies that preserve health justice principles and sustain PCC. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a social justice approach that offers a distinct, equity-driven perspective on operationalizing PCC. CBPR fosters long-term,trust-based partnerships; centres the lived experiences and leadership of underservedmarginalized populations;and co-develops sustainable health interventions that are culturally attuned to a community. Among participatory and community-engaged approaches, CBPR most closely aligns with—and can directly strengthen—the implementation of PCC principles.This paper presents an interprofessional and internationally relevant analysis of how CBPR can support PCC across clinical, public health, and policy domains. We begin by outlining foundational processes for establishing equitable academic–community partnerships. We then detail exemplar CBPR initiatives with ethnically minoritized populations, as well as rural border and migrant communities, highlighting how these collaborations have advanced PCC goals.These exemplars, structured around key CBPR processes and mapped to PCC principles, form the basis of a conceptual blueprint for action.We next present a framework for applying CBPR to promote uptake of the World Health Organization's integrated model for PCC, emphasizing its relevance amid shifting policy and funding landscapes.Finally, we offer actionable recommendations for clinicians, researchers, community partners, health systems, and policy actors to integrate CBPR across the research continuum.To fully realize PCC even amid challenging sociopolitical contexts in a rapidly changing world in today's political climate, researchers must shift from producing knowledge about communities to co-producing knowledge with them, ensuring that science is conducted in equal partnership with those most affected by structural health inequities.