scholarly journals Linguistic fairness in the U.S.: The case of multilingual public health information about COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damián E. Blasi ◽  
Vishala Mishra ◽  
Adolfo M. García ◽  
Joseph P. Dexter
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Rapid Dissemination ◽  
The U.S

Lack of high-quality multilingual resources can contribute to disparities in the availability of medical and public health information. The COVID-19 pandemic has required rapid dissemination of essential guidance to diverse audiences and therefore provides an ideal context in which to study linguistic fairness in the U.S. Here we report a cross-sectional study of official non-English information about COVID-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the health departments of all 50 U.S. states. We find that multilingual information is limited in many states, such that almost half of all individuals not proficient in English or Spanish lack access to state-specific COVID-19 guidance in their primary language. Although Spanish-language information is widely available, we show using automated readability formulas that most materials do not follow standard recommendations for clear communication in medicine and public health. In combination, our results provide a snapshot of linguistic unfairness across the U.S. and highlight an urgent need for the creation of plain language, multilingual resources about COVID-19.

scholarly journals The impact of the COVID-19 response on the provision of other public health services in the U.S.: A cross sectional study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina W. Kintziger ◽  
Kahler W. Stone ◽  
Meredith Jagger ◽  
Jennifer A. Horney
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Career Plans ◽  
Public Health Departments ◽  
Essential Public Health Services ◽  
The U.S

Abstract Background Funding and staff formerly dedicated to routine public health tasks (e.g., responding to communicable and non-communicable diseases, investigating foodborne outbreaks, conducting routine surveillance) and services (e.g., environmental health, substance abuse, maternal-child health) may no longer be available in many public health departments due to the COVID-19 response. The objective of this study was to assess the extent to which staffing for essential public health services has been redirected to the COVID-19 response. Methods This is a cross-sectional study using a survey distributed through the Qualtrics platform. Individuals (N = 298) working in public health across governmental and academic public health departments in the U.S. during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response were surveyed. Survey items measured multiple domains including professional experience (i.e., training, years of experience, content expertise, job functions), mental and physical health status (i.e., generalized anxiety, depression, burnout), and career plans (i.e., pre-pandemic vs. current career plans). Results The total number of content expertise areas and programmatic functions covered by individual public health workers increased between January and September of 2020, with 26% (73 of 282) of respondents reporting an increase in both. The total number of respondents working in infectious disease and preparedness remained constant, while declines were reported in program evaluation (-36%) and health education (-27%) and increases were reported in disease investigation (+ 35%). Conclusions The provision of many essential public health functions and tasks have been limited or eliminated while the U.S. public health workforce responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings highlight opportunities for funding and professional development of public health systems, both during and after the COVID-19 response, to help ensure the continuity of essential public health services, staffing sustainability, and preparedness for future public health emergencies in the U.S. Trial registration: Not applicable.

scholarly journals The impact of the COVID-19 response on the provision of other public health services in the U.S.: A cross sectional study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0255844
Author(s):  
Kristina W. Kintziger ◽  
Kahler W. Stone ◽  
Meredith A. Jagger ◽  
Jennifer A. Horney
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Career Plans ◽  
Public Health Departments ◽  
Essential Public Health Services ◽  
The U.S

Introduction Funding and staff formerly dedicated to routine public health tasks (e.g., responding to communicable and non-communicable diseases, investigating foodborne outbreaks, conducting routine surveillance) and services (e.g., environmental health, substance abuse, maternal-child health) may no longer be available in many public health departments due to the COVID-19 response. The objective of this study was to assess the extent to which staffing for essential public health services has been redirected to the COVID-19 response. Materials and methods This is a cross-sectional study using a survey distributed through the Qualtrics platform. Individuals (N = 298) working in public health across governmental and academic public health departments in the U.S. during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response were surveyed. Survey items measured multiple domains including professional experience (i.e., training, years of experience, content expertise, job functions, hours worked), mental and physical health status (i.e., generalized anxiety, depression, burnout), and career plans (i.e., pre-pandemic vs. current career plans). Results The total number of content expertise areas and programmatic functions covered by individual public health workers increased between January and September of 2020, with 26% (73 of 282) of respondents reporting an increase in both. The total number of respondents working in infectious disease and preparedness remained constant, while declines were reported in program evaluation (-36%) and health education (-27%) and increases were reported in disease investigation (+35%). Conclusions The provision of many essential public health functions and tasks have been limited or eliminated while the U.S. public health workforce responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings highlight opportunities for funding and professional development of public health systems, both during and after the COVID-19 response, to help ensure the continuity of essential public health services, staffing sustainability, and preparedness for future public health emergencies in the U.S.

Rewriting Public Health Information in Plain Language

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
RIMA E. RUDD ◽  
KIMBERLY KAPHINGST ◽  
TAYLA COLTON ◽  
JOHN GREGOIRE ◽  
JAMES HYDE
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Public Health Information

scholarly journals Hand Hygiene and Mask-Wearing Practices during COVID-19 among Healthcare Workers: Misinformation as a Predictor

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senhu Wang ◽  
Lambert Zixin Li ◽  
Natasha van Antwerpen ◽  
Sutrisno Suparman ◽  
Mergy Gayatri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
Health Related

Poor public health information is a hurdle in infectious disease control. The study aims to examine whether healthcare workers adhere to hand hygiene and mask-wearing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore their exposure to misinformation about the pandemic as a predictor. A cross-sectional survey was sent to 518 healthcare workers across Indonesia, the fourth largest nation in the world, in September 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The respondents reported whether they adhered to the guidelines of hand hygiene and mask wearing and whether they believed in four pieces of misinformation about the origin, severity, contagion, and prevention of COVID-19. The association between misinformation and hand hygiene and mask wearing was tested with logistic regression models controlling for demographic and health-related covariates. Approximately 25% of healthcare workers did not always adhere to hand hygiene guidelines and approximately 5% did not adhere to mask-wearing guidelines. There are significant associations between all four pieces of misinformation and hand hygiene and mask wearing. It is important to improve public health information about COVID-19, which may hold key to healthcare workers’ hand hygiene and mask wearing and to protect their health and patients’ safety.

scholarly journals Promoting mask use on TikTok: An unconventional approach to public health education (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey H Basch ◽  
Joseph Fera ◽  
Isabela Pierce ◽  
Charles E Basch
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
World Health ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Health Organization

BACKGROUND Over the past decade, there has been an increasing secular trend in studies of social media and health. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the content and characteristics of TikTok videos related to an important aspect of community mitigation, namely use of masks as a way to interrupt transmission of SARS-CoV-2. METHODS One-hundred trending video with the hashtag #WearAMask, a campaign on TikTok, along with 32 videos posted by the World Health Organization (WHO) that included masks in any way (to date) were included in the sample. Metadata on each post and content categories created using fact sheets from WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) inform characteristics that were coded. RESULTS Videos posted using the hashtag #WearAMask garnered almost a half billion views, (n = 494,824,395) and videos posted by the WHO garnered over 57 million views. While the ratio of trending #WearAMask to WHO videos was ~3:1, the #WearAMask videos received almost 10 times as many cumulative views. A total of 68% of the trending #WearAMask videos used humor (garnering over 355 million cumulative views), but only three of the WHO videos used humor, and while 27% of the trending #WearAMask videos used dance (garnering over 130 million cumulative views), none of the WHO videos used dance. CONCLUSIONS This study is one of the first to describe how TikTok is being used for community mitigation of COVID-19 by promoting mask use. Because of its incredible reach, there is great potential to convey important public health messages to various segments of the population.

scholarly journals The impact of visiting operational departments on improving public health students’ learning about Rabies preventions, coetaneous Leishmaniasis, and serological tests of Brucellosis: a learning trip

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdurrahman Charkazi
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Serological Tests ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Healthcare Center ◽  
Total Satisfaction ◽  
Rabies Control ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Students Satisfaction

Abstract Background: Conventional teaching through lectures cannot be of much use and efficiency for achieving the educational goals of this course. Designing community-based teachings could be influential in students’ learning quality. Hence, the present study was conducted aiming to evaluate the impact of visiting the operational departments of Gonbad-e Kavous county healthcare center on improving public health students’ learning of educational objectives of the national infections disease combat program. Methods: Over a cross-sectional study, 97 students of continues and discontinuous bachelor’s majoring in public health visited the department of rabies prevention and control, coetaneous Leishmaniasis(CL) control, and the central laboratory of Gonbad-e Kavous county healthcare center over the first semester of the 2017-19 academic year. These students were introduced to the methods of treating Leishmaniasis patients and those bitten by animals as well as brucellosis diagnosis tests. The students were provided with the study's questionnaire after the visit so that they could fill it in. collected data entered SPSS v.15 statistical software and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and an independent t-test. Results: 61 (62.9%) of the students were female and 50 (51.5%) people were discontinuous bachelor’s students. The average satisfaction of students with the CL, rabies control and prevention, and Brucellosis test departments was 93.38%, 89.25%, and 82.69%, respectively. Besides, the total satisfaction of the mentioned visits was 92.61%. Discontinuous bachelor's students' satisfaction with rabies control and prevention and Brucellosis departments was significantly higher compared to continuous bachelor's students (P<0.05). Conclusion: results indicated that students’ satisfaction with visiting the operational departments of Gonbad-e Kavous county healthcare center was high. Hence, further such visits are recommended for other public health students.

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