The Participatory Action Research Empowerment Measure: Development of a New Measure of Empowerment

Public health and healthcare professionals often find themselves in international settings providing care to populations exposed to disease, violence, and injury. The concept of empowering communities to take control of the determinants of their health is key to preventing disease and promoting health. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is one method that has been used to empower individuals, groups, and communities. Very few quantitative tools exist to evaluate the effect of participation in PAR at the individual level; those that exist are incomplete or fail to address multilevel contextual factors. The Participatory Action Research Empowerment Measure (PAREM) was developed to fill this gap in PAR evaluation and to provide an outcome measure for this intervention technique. The findings of this study provide evidence in support of the reliability, validity, and feasibility of the PAREM within the context of the historical and sociopolitical structures of South Africa.