How can community engagement in health research be strengthened for infectious disease outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa? A scoping review of the literature.

The scoping review focusses on community engagement (CE) in health research for infectious disease outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa. The main review points comprise:

• Community engagement is vital for improving health research outcomes, particularly in the context of infectious diseases. 
• Effective CE ensures that research aligns with community priorities, improves ethical standards, and increases the uptake of research results. 
• There is a lack of lack of clarity on what constitutes "community" and differing engagement approaches across research contexts. 
• The research process often fails to include community members at critical stages like research design or result dissemination, which limits its overall effectiveness.
• Community engagement during infectious disease outbreaks is often hindered by operational challenges due to the urgency and complexity of outbreak situations. However, meaningful engagement that involves communities as partners rather than mere subjects can improve the quality and ethical soundness of the research. To
• To strengthen CE in such contexts, the review recommends clearer guidelines, better-defined roles for communities in decision-making, and improved strategies for involving communities across all stages of research

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