ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected Los Angeles County and disproportionately impacted Black and Latino populations who experienced disparities in rates of infection, hospitalizations, morbidity, and mortality. The University of Southern California (USC), USC Keck School of Medicine, Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, USC Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Annenberg School for Journalism and Communication, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles will launch a collaborative public health campaign called VaccinateLA. OBJECTIVE: VaccinateLA will implement a community-based, community-partnered public health campaign that (1) delivers culturally tailored information about COVID-19 and available vaccines; and (2) addresses misinformation and disinformation, which serves as a barrier to vaccine uptake. The campaign will be targeted to communities in Los Angeles with the highest rates of COVID-19 infection and the lowest vaccination rates. Using these criteria, the campaign will be targeted to neighborhoods located in 34 zip codes in the Eastside and South Los Angeles. The primary aim of VaccinateLA will be to design and deliver an evidence-based multimedia public health campaign tailored for Black and Latino populations. A secondary aim will be to train and deploy community vaccine navigators to deliver COVID-19 education, help individuals overcome barriers to getting vaccinated (eg, transportation and challenges registering), and assist with delivering vaccinations in our targeted communities. METHODS: We will use a community-based, participatory research approach to shape VaccinateLA's public health campaign to address community members' attitudes and concerns in developing campaign content. We will conduct focus groups, establish a community advisory board, and engage local leaders and stakeholders to develop and implement a broad array of educational, multimedia, and field-based activities. RESULTS: As of February 2023, target communities have been identified. The activities will be initiated and evaluated over the course of this year-long initiative, and dissemination will occur following the completion of the project. CONCLUSIONS: Engaging the community is vital to developing culturally tailored public health messages that will resonate with intended audiences. VaccinateLA will serve as a model for how an academic institution can quickly mobilize to address a pressing public health crisis, particularly in underrepresented and underresourced communities. Our work has important implications for future public health campaigns. By leveraging community partnerships and deploying community health workers or promotores into the community, we hope to demonstrate that urban universities can successfully partner with local communities to develop and deliver a range of culturally tailored educational, multimedia, and field-based activities, which in turn may change the course of an urgent public health crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/40161.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 vaccines in the United States were made available to the general public aged 16 years and older in April 2021, but uptake in the months following was variable. We aimed to investigate this variability as a function of interpersonal factors, namely perceived social circle vaccine acceptance and proximity to illness, controlling for intrapersonal factors more often associated with vaccine behavior. METHOD: Data come from the Understanding Coronavirus in America tracking survey (February 2021-July 2021). We estimated the probability of vaccination among those who were unvaccinated as of April 14, 2021 (N = 2,199), the day before the announcement of general public eligibility. Stratified modeling by race accounted for subgroup differences. RESULTS: People who perceived social circle vaccine acceptance (Hazard Ratio [HR] = 1.37, p < .001), higher risk of infection (HR = 1.20, p < .001), greater trust in the vaccine (HR = 1.42, p < .001), and lower risk of vaccine side effects (HR = 0.77, p < .001) were more likely to get vaccinated. Perceptions of social circle vaccine acceptance were associated with vaccine initiation for all racial subgroups except Black respondents, for whom concerns about vaccine side effects were central. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived social circle vaccine acceptance was associated with time to the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. With public uncertainty about this new vaccine, people may have relied on perceptions of peers' vaccination intentions when deciding on their own vaccination. We discuss strategies for promoting vaccine uptake by intervening on perceptions of social norms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Vaccines , Adult , Humans , COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19/prevention & control , Vaccination , CognitionABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This study tested the relative efficacy of a culturally tailored dramatic narrative promoting COVID-19 vaccination in changing attitudes and behavioral intent among unvaccinated Latinas compared to a nonnarrative control containing similar information. DESIGN: A pretest-posttest experimental study with unvaccinated Latinas randomly assigned to watch either a dramatic narrative featuring Latina characters countering prevalent myths about COVID-19 vaccines or a nonnarrative film containing similar information (control condition). SETTING: The experiment was hosted online with the films embedded in the survey. PARTICIPANTS: Three-hundred-ninety adult Latinas living in the United States (mean age = 33.4 years; SD = 11.2) who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 despite being eligible. At pretest, 57.7% were hesitant and 42.3% were resistant (refusing) to get vaccinated. MEASURES: Self-reported measures of engagement with the film, COVID-19 vaccine attitudes, and intent to get vaccinated within 30 days at pretest and posttest. RESULTS: Resistant women were significantly more engaged in the dramatic narrative than the nonnarrative control film (P = .03). Being engaged in a film predicted more positive post-viewing attitudes toward the vaccine (b = .28; P < .001) and higher intent to get vaccinated (b = 2.34, P < .001). CONCLUSION: Using culturally tailored stories to promote healthy behaviors such as vaccination can be an effective way of reaching resistant audiences.
ABSTRACT
Hundreds of thousands of public and private schools have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To better help this group of teachers during the pandemic, SHAPE America – the professional national organization for health and physical education teachers – came together to create and provide physical education teachers with reentry considerations. This article aims to provide K–12 physical education teachers with an abbreviated version of the SHAPE America reentry considerations and practical strategies for implementation during in-school, distance, and hybrid learning in physical education.