Community-based Design and Evaluation of a Conversational Agent to Promote SARS-COV2 Vaccination in Black Churches

项目总结/摘要 以社区为基础设计与评估一个会话式代理人以促进SARS- COV 2疫苗接种在黑人教堂 非裔美国人遭受了COVID-19的不成比例的负担， 与白人相比，感染率、住院率和死亡率较高。这些发现可能 非洲裔美国人对疫苗犹豫不决的风险也更高。 由于有限的卫生知识被认为是种族和族裔差异的关键因素， 解决卫生知识普及障碍的干预措施有可能改善这些障碍， 差距。在过去的十年里，我们已经开发和测试了嵌入式会话代理 (ECA)- 使用声音、手势模拟面对面咨询的计算机角色， 凝视线索和其他非语言行为，并成功地将它们用于健康行为 对健康知识普及程度低的人群采取干预措施。我们开发了基于ECA的 采取干预措施，解决识字率低的人口的各种健康问题， 包括体力活动、饮食和药物依从性促进，提供获得和 医疗文件的解释和家庭健康史的收集。本课题 建议建立一个有效和可持续的基于智能手机的ECA干预措施， 提供有关SARS-CoV-2和流感疫苗接种的个性化和定制教育。我们 将与大波士顿黑人部长联盟TenPoint（BMATP）合作， 该干预应用程序并在一项涉及12个国家600名会众的临床试验中对其进行评估 主要是非洲裔美国人的教堂。我们的主要假设是，参与者 6个月时完成的SARS-CoV-2和流感疫苗接种系列显著增加（H1） 和12个月（H2）的应用程序版本，促进参与和纳入精神 裁缝我们的次要假设是，在没有接种疫苗的参与者中， 那些在高参与度和定制条件下的人， 获得SARS-CoV-2和流感疫苗以及对SARS-CoV-2的态度， 流感疫苗。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Community-based Design and Evaluation of A Conversational Agent to Promote SARS- COV2 Vaccination in Black Churches African Americans have suffered a disproportionate burden from COVID-19, with significantly higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality compared to Whites. These findings may be compounded by the fact that African Americans are also at higher risk for vaccine hesitancy. As limited health literacy has been identified as a key mediator of racial and ethnic disparities, interventions that address health literacy barriers have the potential to ameliorate these disparities. Over the past decade we have developed and tested embodied conversational agents (ECA) — computer characters that simulate face-to-face counseling using voice, hand gesture, gaze cues and other nonverbal behavior, and successfully used them in health behavior interventions for populations with low health literacy. We have developed ECA-based interventions to address a wide range of health problems among low literacy populations, including physical activity, diet, and medication adherence promotion, providing access to and explanation of healthcare documents, and collection of family health histories. In this project, we propose to create an effective and sustainable smartphone-based ECA intervention designed to deliver personalized and tailored education about SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza vaccination. We will collaborate with the Black Ministerial Alliance TenPoint (BMATP) of Greater Boston to develop the intervention app and evaluate it in a clinical trial involving 600 congregants from 12 predominately African American churches. Our primary hypothesis is that participants will have significantly greater SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza vaccination series completion at 6 months (H1) and 12 months (H2) in versions of the app that promote engagement and incorporate spiritual tailoring. Our secondary hypotheses are that, among participants who have not been vaccinated, those in the high engagement and tailored conditions will have significant improvements in intent to obtain SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza vaccination and attitudes towards SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza vaccination.