Thursday, August 18, 2022 9:45 AM - 11:15 AM (EDT)

TOPIC DESCRIPTION & OVERVIEW

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected some groups already at higher risk for negative health outcomes. Communicating effectively with high-risk groups requires understanding of the knowledge gaps that may be barriers to protective health behaviors including vaccination. Our panel highlights three recent projects aimed at understanding knowledge gaps about COVID-19 in specific high-risk groups, including persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and extreme low literacy, people with chronic diseases, and respondents who chose to answer a national survey in Spanish (Spanish-dominant speakers).

Our first presentation addresses knowledge gaps specific to asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 and misinformation for respondents who chose to take a national survey about COVID in Spanish. Our second presentation highlights an initiative to develop and test COVID-19 materials for individuals with developmental disabilities and extreme low literacy. The final presentation presents survey results about perceived effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in preventing hospitalization among survey respondents who had a chronic health condition compared to survey respondents who did not. Our moderator, Alison Rodden, CEO of the Hispanic Communication Network has worked on creation of multicultural COVID-19 communications products for both English-dominant and limited English proficiency (LEP) audiences and will guide a discussion on lessons learned for communicating with various high-risk populations, including some recommendations for best practices.