“My name is Sarah Craven. My hometown is Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I moved to Kelowna, British Columbia to complete my undergraduate degree in Health and Exercise Science. My project focuses on testing the efficacy and acceptability of the demographics questionnaire provided to clients of the community-based type 2 diabetes (T2D) prevention program, Small Steps for Big Changes (SSBC).
Demographics data is important in community-based health research to identify the characteristics of people engaging in the program, and how the program may be streamlined to target the community to achieve optimal outcomes for them. Collecting demographic data often involves asking clients about sensitive topics such as sex, ethnicity, gender, ability/disability and socioeconomic background. Therefore, a demographics questionnaire that touches on these sensitive topics, it is essential that its contents be evaluated to ensure that data is being collected in an appropriate manner. Through this project, SSBC will better understand if their demographics questionnaire effectively gathers relevant data in a way that is acceptable and clear to all individuals.
With better collection of demographic information, SSBC can understand and serve the community. For example, the data will help us to understand what populations SSBC are not reaching, which may guide the development of recruitment or intervention components to make SSBC accessible to all people who need diabetes prevention care.
My career aspiration is to pursue a master’s degree in health and exercise science specializing in the area of health equity in community-based disease prevention care. There is a large disparity in health among individuals of marginalized groups that needs to be addressed within health research. Many people who are most at risk for chronic disease do not have equal opportunity to access the same quality of preventative health services. My career goal is to work towards establishing preventative health programs with these communities and measure their feasibility and effectiveness.”
