Objective: Describe a community-based participatory research effort between Tribal Health Departments in Maine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), College of Public Health to conduct a modified behavioral risk factors surveillance system with five Tribal communities in Maine.
Methods: The study incorporated a long-distance community-based participatory research approach where Tribal Health Directors selected domains for the survey, modified the questions as needed, and advertised/recruited for the survey. Tribal interviewers trained via UNMC College of Public Health webinars conducted the surveys via computer assisted personal interviews at Tribal health centers or other Tribal facilities. Tribal interviewers uploaded surveys from the sites into a UNMC firewall protected data base.
Results: 1,127 Tribal members completed the survey.
Conclusions: The methodology of this study can be adapted to other communities who wish to work longdistance with academic institutions to conduct community-based participatory research.