The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges for vulnerable populations. As part of the mission of the OHDRC, we have maintained continuous community engagement and partnerships aimed at finding ways to reduce the impact of obesity and related chronic diseases. With the advent of COVID-19, we were quickly able to leverage these long-standing and trusting relationships to learn how COVID-19 was perceived by the residents of our partnering vulnerable communities. Through ongoing community dialogue, we know that there are substantial differences in how residents in our partner communities understand and act upon COVID-19 guidance, perhaps contributing to the alarming disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. Overall, residents feel that COVID-19 is making marginalized communities even more marginalized. In this environment, it is vital that we find ways to improve COVID-19 testing and follow-up care through collaboration with community partners. The overall goal of this emergency revision to the OHDRC, COVID-19 Testing Model among Vulnerable Populations: From Community Engagement to Follow-Up, is to implement and evaluate the impact of a three- component mobile community-based testing model in improving the access, acceptance, uptake, and appropriate follow-up. Our unique model combines 1) robust pre-testing community engagement to improve reach and acceptability of COVID-19 testing; 2) targeted mobile testing located in underserved neighborhoods to increase access and uptake; and 3) culturally appropriate post-testing participant navigation and follow-up services to ensure better impact and health outcomes. Strong community partnerships help ensure the acceptability and sustainability of this effort. The proposed model is guided by the Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) framework and integrates a Social Determinants of Health (SDH) approach throughout all aims to strengthen community engagement, identify areas in greatest need for testing, and enhance navigation services to address unmet healthcare follow-up and social needs. We will compare the effectiveness of our neighborhood mobile testing model to the traditional health systems-based fixed testing model. Study findings will provide evidence that can help improve testing rates and follow-up among vulnerable populations and address stark disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. The proposed work builds upon an already active demonstration pilot testing project that provided testing to vulnerable African American and Hispanic residents of Jefferson County, Alabama.
The Obesity Health Disparities Research Center (OHDRC) has focused on reducing the disparities in obesity between African Americans and Whites in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, thereby reducing other related health disparities in chronic diseases through transdisciplinary, multi-level, multi-domain research. The COVID- 19 pandemic has created unique challenges for vulnerable populations in underserved communities and unique opportunities to understand how best to improve access to and rates of COVID-19 testing and follow-up care. The overall goal of this emergency revision to the OHDRC, COVID-19 Testing Model among Vulnerable Populations: From Community Engagement to Follow-Up, is to implement and evaluate the impact of a three- component mobile community-based testing model for improving the access, acceptance, uptake, and appropriate follow-up among residents of vulnerable, underserved areas.
| Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne; Dutton, Gareth R; Borgatti, Alena et al. (2018) Habit formation intervention to prevent obesity in low-income preschoolers and their mothers: A randomized controlled trial protocol. Contemp Clin Trials 70:88-98 |
| Ejima, K; Pavela, G; Li, P et al. (2018) Generalized lambda distribution for flexibly testing differences beyond the mean in the distribution of a dependent variable such as body mass index. Int J Obes (Lond) 42:930-933 |
