April 7-9, 2022 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Abstract: Using Community Engagement Studios to Design a COVID-19 Treatment Communication Campaign
Background: As COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths strain U.S. health care, there is an urgent need to develop, implement, disseminate, and iteratively evaluate effective therapies to reduce COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Early and effective treatment of high-risk COVID-19 patients in the outpatient setting is an important tool—offering hope to prevent healthcare systems from reaching a breaking point by enhancing early recovery and avoiding hospitalizations. Moreover, even in the absence of overwhelmed health care systems, effective means to prevent progression to serious illness with COVID-19 could save tens of thousands of lives and should be rapidly and broadly adopted. Unfortunately, only a fraction (<5%) of eligible outpatients are currently accessing monoclonal antibody (mAb) outpatient treatments for COVID-19. Further, most patients accessing mAb treatment to date are white and non-Hispanic, which does not reflect the disproportionately high need for delivering effective treatments to racial/ethnic minority communities at higher risk of severe disease. Culturally-targeted messaging is needed to reach high-risk communities and to promote awareness and access to mAb treatments. Community engagement (CE) studios use unique panels of patients or community stakeholders selected to represent the target audience to obtain study-specific feedback, and are facilitated by personnel trained in CE who recruit and prepare stakeholders and coach researchers (Joosten et al., 2015). We adapted CE studio methods to co-design communication campaign messages and strategies in partnership with members of communities with high COVID-19 burden. Methods: In May–August 2021, we conducted a series of four virtual CE studios to design culturally-targeted, mAb promotional messaging and dissemination strategies. CE studios were conducted in four priority communities: 1) Spanish-speaking communities, 2) residents of rural areas of Colorado, 3) American Indian/Native American, and 4) members of the project’s Stakeholder Advisory Panel. Media designers were also included in CE studio sessions to allow for direct feedback on materials and rapid revisions. CE studio participants had access to online platforms including Google Drive or Jamboard (an interactive whiteboard tool from Google). We used online collaborative platforms to iteratively design messages and materials with stakeholder input and in response to emerging evidence. Findings: In line with community member priorities, we developed messages that 1) emphasized safety and effectiveness of the treatment, 2) provided general cost information, and 3) encouraged people to talk to a health care provider to see if the treatment was right for them. Dissemination channels included local radio, community-based organizations (e.g., e-newsletters, flyers, announcements), and social media. We incorporated iterative feedback from CE studio participants to develop flyers, social media graphics, videos, radio advertisements, and a website (www.mAbColorado.org). Collaborative dissemination efforts are ongoing. Conclusions: By employing CE studio methods, we were able to effectively engage community members in participatory design of a communication campaign featuring messages and dissemination strategies targeting communities at high-risk of COVID-19. We are continuing to update messages and materials as further evidence on the availability and effectiveness of mAbs emerges—using online platforms to gather iterative feedback from CE participants to improve relevance to key audiences.