COVID-19: Healthy Oregon (Oregon Saludable): Together We Can (Juntos Podemos)

Summary

The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that causes the severe respiratory illness COVID-19 is the worst health crisis that the United States has faced in a century. Although this highly contagious virus has infected millions of Americans already, the disease burdens are disproportionately born by historically underserved populations such as Latinx communities. This disparity is notable in Oregon, where the 13% of the population that is Latinx represents approximately 44% of COVID-19 cases. An urgent need exists to reach Oregon's Latinx community to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

The overall goal of this study is to implement a Promotores de Salud intervention to increase the reach, access, uptake, and impact of testing in Latinx communities in Oregon. This project will fully integrate with the National institutes of Health (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) consortium and its Coordination and Data Collection Center (CDCC). With guidance and leadership from the study's Latinx Community and Scientific Advisory Board, 38 testing sites have been established to test the Promotores de Salud intervention. The investigators will test whether the Promotores de Salud intervention will increase testing rates and promote better health behaviors in communities over time. The investigators will test the intervention using a randomized control trial comparing the intervention to county outreach services as usual. Evaluation of the Promotores de Salud intervention held during a testing event (compared to distribution of a pamphlet only) will test whether culturally competent education results in greater use of strategies that reduce transmission of COVID-19 at the community and individual level.

The investigators have designed a working group structure with teams focused on: Community Engagement, Molecular Biology, Data Science, and Implementation Science. These working groups are coordinated by an Administrative Hub and guided by the study's Latinx Community and Scientific Advisory Board.

Over time, this project will help communities institutionalize optimal local testing frameworks supported by University of Oregon laboratory facilities for testing capacity, technical support for testing logistics, and collection of data on health behaviors, testing rates, and sustainability. The resulting structures and systems will be poised for future scale-up to other vulnerable communities and/or for other public health purposes (e.g., vaccination campaigns).

Conditions

• Health Behavior
• Health Care Utilization

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Promotores de Salud

The Promotores de Salud intervention is delivered by a paid Promotor(a) who is a trusted member of the community where the testing site is located. The intervention includes: (1) psychoeducation to increase knowledge about COVID-19 and the benefits of testing; (2) motivational interviewing (MI) strategies to explore personal, social, and behavioral barriers to testing and to discuss available resources to resolve these barriers; (3) emotional support to address testing-related concerns and anxieties that may dissuade Latinx individuals from getting tested; and (4) service navigation. When promotores are on-site at testing events, they will provide information about COVID-19 and preventive behaviors using in-person instruction on effective mask wearing, hand washing, and physical distancing, as well as the importance of repeated testing and vaccines.

BEHAVIORAL

Services as usual

Services as usual, our control condition, includes strategies that are typically conducted by county and community-based organizations that serve under-represented groups to notify people of testing opportunities related to COVID-19. These include Facebook advertisements, email announcements, circulation to other community-based organizations and state agencies (e.g., Oregon Health Authority, county public health), and other flyer distribution means. This condition also includes a pamphlet about health behaviors and community resources handed out by testing facilitators at testing events.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  collaborator NIH

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Oregon

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Leslie D Leve, PhD · University of Oregon

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-02-04

Primary Completion

2022-12-31

Completion

2022-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations