The Brown School’s Health Communication Research Laboratory (HCRL) at Washington University in St. Louis has received two grants totaling $1.57 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to understand and address COVID-19 health disparities.
The first study will examine how low-income workers have been affected by the pandemic, while the second will develop and test communication strategies to increase COVID-19 testing and vaccination in underserved populations. The studies will be led by Matthew Kreuter, the Kahn Family Professor of Public Health at the Brown School and senior scientist at the HCRL.
“The impact of COVID-19 on the lives and health of low-income Americans and racial and ethnic minorities has been especially severe,” Kreuter said. “These studies will help assure that public health responses meet their needs.”
The communication study, which also involves 2-1-1 helplines in Connecticut, North Carolina, Nebraska and Washington, is part of NIH’s national initiative, Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations, or RADx-UP, which aims to increase access to COVID-19 testing in vulnerable populations. Read more on the Brown School site.
Dr. Kreuter leads the WU-CDTR Health Communication and Social Needs Core. Learn more about services offered through the core here.
This article was originally posted on WUSTL’s the Source December 21, 2020.