Effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) interventions on mental health outcomes: A systematic review

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) promotes the significant involvement of community members in research, which helps increase the effectiveness of specific interventions for community members. However, no reviews have investigated the effectiveness of CBPR interventions in mental health outcomes nor the adherence level to CBPR principles. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were to (1) examine the effectiveness of CBPR interventions on mental health outcomes and (2) assess the overall adherence to CBPR principles in existing mental health research. A systematic search was conducted in five databases for studies published between January 2000 and December 2022. We included 14 studies in this review based on our eligibility criteria. We assessed the effectiveness of quality appraisal and developed a four-dimensional rating scheme (degree of community involvement in the research process; level of shared decision-making between researchers and the community; level of contribution to community capacity building; level of addressing original health problems in the community) to assess the overall adherence to CBPR principles. Although CBPR interventions impacted mental well-being outcomes, research quality varied, and most studies did not adhere to CBPR principles. Future research using the rating scheme proposed in this study is recommended.