The (non)Problem of a Small n: Using a Community-Engaged, Mixed-Method Approach in Tribal Home Visiting Research

This year’s SPR theme attempts to optimize the potential of ‘big data’ for prevention science. The promise of ‘big data’ for prevention research is significant, ranging from expanding existing data sources through medical informatics to enabling more nuanced findings through nimble, transdisciplinary study designs. And yet, for research in communities with small populations, especially those that disproportionately experience health disparities, ‘big data’ pose a series of challenges. These challenges include but are not limited to the underrepresentation of small populations in existing data sets, small sample sizes, and low levels of technological infrastructure. This scientific dialogue convenes individuals representing multiple stakeholder perspectives in the Multisite Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting Research (MUSE) Study. MUSE is a mixed-method, community-engaged study assessing the implementation of home visiting services across 17 tribal communities throughout the U.S. These services are funded though the Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) initiative. Bringing together quantitative and qualitative prevention researchers, community members, and federal program partners who have designed MUSE, this roundtable will discuss what the possibilities and limitations for ‘big data’ are in small communities, how an emphasis on ‘big data’ may unintentionally impose rather than alleviate health disparities for “small” populations, and how the community-engaged, mixed-method approach pursued in MUSE has attempted to address equity in research by centering local concerns, practices and knowledge.