April 7-9, 2022 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Abstract: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Health Communication for Latinx Communities in Oregon during the COVID-19 Pandemic
In the U.S., Latinx communities have experienced some of the most disparate health, social, and economic consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic. These disparities have been exacerbated by existing structural and environmental inequities, coexisting chronic medical conditions, limited access to healthcare, high-risk working conditions, precarious housing arrangements, low financial resources, and language barriers (Baquero et al., 2020; Berkowitz et al., 2020; Gil et al., 2020; Page & Flores-Miller, 2020; Selden& Berdahl, 2020). The situation in the state of Oregon reflects the disparate impact of COVID-19 on Latinx communities around the country. Latinx coronavirus infection rates accounted for 34% of total infections in February 2021 and 24% of total infections in June 2021 even as Latinx people comprise 13.4% of Oregon’s population (OHA, 2021; U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). Communication messages early in the COVID-19 pandemic tended to focus more on individual risks than community risks resulting from existing inequities (Airhihenbuwa et al., 2020). Past research indicates that effective health communication strategies with Latinx communities must be based on a comprehensive understanding of cultural and social realities impacting the needs of those community members. Community-based communication models and interventions are critical in health equity and health communication efforts which seek to address the social determinants of health that have put people of racial and ethnic and minority groups at increased risk of morbidity and mortality during COVID-19 (CDC, 2021; Dutta & Kreps, 2013; Glanz et al., 2015; Brennan Ramirez et al., 2008) In the state of Oregon, a network of community-based organizations, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), and local health authorities have worked to create culturally appropriate messages for the disproportionately impacted Latinx communities during the pandemic. The goal of this research project is to examine and better understand the range of health communication strategies and messages utilized for Latinx communities in Oregon during the first nineteen months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Critical discourse analysis of health communication for Latinx communities produced by Latinx serving CBOs and OHA during the COVID-19 pandemic will be utilized to identify the underlying theories and approaches driving and shaping health communication discourse in this case study including traditional, individual- level psychological health and behavior models as well as cultural, social, and structural frameworks and theories of health communication, health disparities and health activism. The discourse sample was purposefully selected to include a range of Latinx communities and Latinx serving CBOs across the state by utilizing the seven regions structure employed by OHA. Each selected CBO was a recipient of an OHA COVID-19 specific grant to “support culturally and linguistically responsive services as a part of the state’s COVID-19 response” (OHA, 2020). Each CBO in the study also indicated serving Latino, Latina, Latinx community with the OHA grant funding. Health communication samples collected for discourse analysis were also purposefully selected to examine communication sequentially over the first year and a half of the pandemic through seven distinct time periods between March 2020 and October 2021.