Community-Defined Measures to Bridge Health Equity Gaps for COVID-19: Small Town and Rural Needs

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This proposal responds to the FDA’s desire to advance understanding of COVID-19 and long COVID or post-COVID conditions for racial and ethnic minorities and to advance the understanding of how to mitigate spread of COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation (RFA- FD-23-009).. This Community Engaged Research (CEnR) project investigates ongoing COVID- 19 experiences (including COVID-19 and long COVID), related to health equity and access barriers, for African Americans/Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, and other multicultural populations in Southern Maryland’s rural/small-towns of Charles and St. Mary’s counties. Addressing health equity in diverse COVID-19-related experiences and post-acute care needs, along with COVID- 19 research and clinical trials participation, will require activities which are continuously informed by community-guided research on barriers and bidirectional engagement. Active and authentic partnerships with historically underrepresented communities are also needed to address barriers, and to propose actionable items to mitigate the spread of mis/disinformation. Moreover, in CEnR, the incorporation of ongoing COVID-19-related experiences of rural/small town communities, coupled with the need for mitigation of mis and disinformation surrounding public health emergencies, can contribute greatly to resolving health equity for diverse minority communities. We submit “Community-defined Measures to Bridge Health Equity Gaps for COVID-19: Small Town and Rural Needs” to achieve the following aims: Aim 1: Delineate which COVID-19-related factors impact health equity for rural/small-town Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino residents in Southern MD. Aim 2: Codesign health equity principles to guide CEnR partnerships to recognize and address mis/disinformation, and to foster COVID-19 research enrollment, including community/faith-based organizations. Aim 3: Codevelop a toolkit to facilitate equity-focused COVID-19 clinical trial recruitment/retention/implementation protocols; strategies to counter misinformation/disinformation about science/research; and methods for greater engagement in FDA Advisory Committees, and other community-based partnerships.