How does community engagement through CETAC help improve health equity?

挑战

Racial and ethnic minority groups throughout the U.S. experience higher rates of illness and death across a wide range of health conditions, including diabetes, 高血压, 哮喘, 心脏病, and maternal morbidity and mortality when compared to their White, non-Hispanic counterparts. So when 新型冠状病毒肺炎 swept across the U.S., its impact on this population was also disproportionate. 解决病毒和其他卫生不公平现象对这些医疗服务不足群体的影响, the National Heart, 肺, 和血液研究所(NHLBI)利用韦斯特支持社区参与联盟(CEAL)抗击新型冠状病毒肺炎的23名获奖者. ceals由学术机构与社区成员和/或组织合作组成，其任务是提供有关新型冠状病毒肺炎检测和疫苗的可信和基于科学的信息，并使用快速研究方法找到有效方法，向受大流行影响最严重的社区提供信息. 他们的外联战略应与他们工作的社区的优势和需求相一致，并通过社区参与来实现.

但是，发展社区伙伴关系以支持和交换信息可能会受到阻碍 〇信任的速度the time needed to form trustworthy relationships. The speed of trust was at odds with the immediacy of the pandemic. hg体育官网 would provide resources to help academic institutions connect with the community. 除了, we would develop communication activities and materials, track the CEAL teams’ 里程碑 and successes, help them develop 评价 plans to assess their interventions, and conduct systematic 评价s of the initiatives and their impact on the communities. Our expertise in technical assistance (TA), 通信, 评估不仅将适用于这一倡议，还将适用于以气候和健康为重点的其他NHLBI倡议, maternal health and pregnancy outcomes, and the creation of a network for community-engaged primary care research.

解决方案

hg体育官网’s core activities for these initiatives include communication and outreach support; alliance-wide data coordination and management; program 评价; and sub-award administration and monitoring. Our 通信 support includes guidance related to media engagements and outreach events; assistance with social media campaigns; development of factual, 社区领导人可以分享的可信赖的新型冠状病毒肺炎资源，以解决信息差距, 错误信息, 和不信任. 我们还重点介绍了CEALS在纠正错误信息和改善边缘化社区知识方面取得的成功.

进一步, 我们确保我们开发的交流在文化和语言上是合适的，尽管语言和阅读技能, affected communities will be able to understand the information in diverse ways. We also develop educational tools to guide community leaders on topics, such as building trust, 评估需求, and encouraging inclusion in health research. 举办圆桌会议、市政厅和其他活动为讨论新型冠状病毒肺炎打开了大门 treatments, vaccines, 和不信任.

To assist CEALS with their progress, 我们已经安装了一个联络模式，将每个获奖者与CETAC团队成员联系起来，以便如果获奖者需要指导或TA, our team member is easily accessible. 这使得韦斯特不仅可以确保他们继续前进，而且还可以掌握他们的活动脉搏.

Because all initiatives conduct community-engaged research, 韦斯特制定了一套简短的社区参与最佳实践和成果的通用措施. 除了 to the overall 评价 of community engagement, hg体育官网进行主动性评估，以从从事类似健康主题的获奖者那里获得信息. 例如, we engaged stakeholders to design a Common Survey to measure COVID-related knowledge, 的态度, and behaviors across all CEAL awardees. 我们还通过比较由CEAL获奖者服务的社区和非CEAL的类似社区的新型冠状病毒肺炎疫苗接种率来衡量影响. 最后, at the local level, 获奖者评估他们自己的项目，并在同行评审的出版物和社区利益相关者中分享结果.

To collect and store the data used for performance measurement, 评价, and broader research, the hg体育官网 team built an online data portal. 获奖者可以使用标准化格式和安全流程将通用调查数据上传到数据门户. We then analyze these data to evaluate the CEAL initiatives, 但其他研究人员也可以要求这些数据，以加深他们对新型冠状病毒肺炎对边缘化社区影响相关问题和解决方案的理解. Awardees also track project 里程碑, and report progress and challenges in the data portal, 使这些信息随时可用，以帮助hg体育官网支持获奖者分享成功和应对挑战. 另外, 数据门户允许获奖者彼此共享资源，以提高效率和效果.

Through sub-award administration, hg体育官网 guarantees that the awardees are complying with National Institutes of Health (NIH) regulations; spending their money responsibly; tracking deliverables, 里程碑, and successes; and identifying potential problems or risks.

我们为这项工作带来的另一项创新是一个包含地图和CEALS进展的仪表板. This allows NHLBI and hg体育官网 to track CEALS’ work and advances. The map shows where the TEAMS are conducting their research. The dashboard will later be made available to the public.

结果

While the results are preliminary, 似乎CEALS正在提高边缘化社区对新型冠状病毒肺炎检测和疫苗接种科学信息的信任，并且该社区的更多成员正在接种疫苗. More analysis is forthcoming.