dbGaP Study Accession: phs002526

NIH Institute/Center: NIMHD

RADx Data Program: RADx-UP

Release Date: 08/29/2023

DOI: 10.60773/eya4-rh89

Updated Date: 04/17/2024

Study Description: The long-term goal of this project was to eliminate COVID-19 disparities among Hawaii's racial/ethnically diverse yet vulnerable populations including Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (NHPI) living in rural and underserved communities. This relied on integrating innovative SARS-CoV-2 testing capacity with novel community-specific messaging and education. Compounded by long-standing health disparities and socioeconomic challenges, NHPIs suffer from increased infection and mortality rates attributed to COVID-19. To date, NHPIs rank among the highest disproportionately burdened by SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. With the nation's highest Rt, a basic reproductive metric indicating the degree of viral spread, Hawaii's disaggregated NHPI data reveal further disparities. Preliminary testing data collected by the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (WCCHC), Hawaii's largest federally funded community health center, indicated a significant deficiency in testing uptake, especially among Pacific Islanders. Under-representative coverage of testing among youth (ages 5-19 years old) in NHPI communities was observed, despite their higher than average infection rate. Other factors, including slow testing turnaround time and untested asymptomatic cases, complicated efforts to contain further community spread. Given the looming public health concerns around the re-opening of businesses and schools, these gaps highlighted the critical need for innovative approaches to effecting behavioral change coupled with novel testing strategies to enhance access to all community members, including school-aged children/youth. Fortunately, existing partnerships in Hawaii's culturally diverse populations offered a unique opportunity to augment the COVID-19 response with community knowledge and resilience. It was hypothesized that community-contextualized messaging disseminated by novel healthcare-school partnerships, coupled with a robust community and patient-centered testing strategy, would increase reach, access, uptake, and impact for COVID-19 testing in vulnerable populations. To test this hypothesis, the multidisciplinary team: (1) evaluated SARS-CoV-2 testing data, identified gaps and barriers in testing, and augmented community testing capacity to increase uptake, and (2) optimized and implemented community-informed COVID-19 messaging and education with a novel community healthcare-school network partnership in the NHPI population across Hawaii. Building on the parent Ola HAWAII grant, this project leveraged existing Community Engagement, Biostatistics, and Administrative Cores with the NHIP partnerships to augment the RADx-UP Coordinating and Data Collection Center for common evaluation metrics on COVID-19 testing-related outcomes and implementation. This project provided the foundation for an engaged community network primed for disseminating anticipated vaccines in Hawaii's highest risk populations. Given the urgency to both improve public health safety and re-open schools, results from this project offered insights into an integrated model or toolkit from which health clinics and schools in underserved and vulnerable communities across the country might actively participate in abating the pandemic.

Principal Investigator: Hedges, Jerris Robert

Has Data Files: Yes

Study Domain: Community Outreach Programs; Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT); Vaccination Rate/Uptake; Social Determinants of Health

Data Collection Method: Survey

Keywords: Access to Care

Study Design: Longitudinal Cohort

Multi-Center Study: FALSE

Data Types: Social; Questionnaires/Surveys

Study Start Date: 09/22/2020

Study End Date: 06/30/2022

Species: Human Data

Estimated Cohort Size: 7000

Study Website URL: https://radx-up.org/project-spotlight/community-driven-approach-to-mitigate-covid-19-disparities-in-hawaiis-vulnerable-populations/

Study Population Focus: Children; Underserved/Vulnerable Population; Adults; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

Publication URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9707710/; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229995/; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9144874/; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9506487/; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9533101/; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10341770/

Acknowledgement Statement: This study was supported through funding, 3U54MD007601-35S2, for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) as part of the RADx-UP program. Approved users should acknowledge the provision of data access by dbGaP for accession phs002526.v1.p1, and the NIH RADx Data Hub. Approved users should also acknowledge the specific version(s) of the dataset(s) obtained from the NIH RADx Data Hub.

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number: PA-18-906

NIH Grant or Contract Number(s): 3U54MD007601-35S2

Consent/Data Use Limitations: General Research Use