The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) Published Special Supplement on the RADx-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) Program
By Kelly Hale, Communications Coordinator
Jul 02, 2024
When the COVID pandemic started, it was imperative for communities to not only test for COVID-19, but also educate the public. And that is where health inequities needed to be addressed in underserved populations.
A team of investigators at Frontiers Clinical and Translational Science Institute partners, the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC), the University of Kansas Medical Center and Children’s Mercy Kansas City, joined over 100 other research projects to address the health inequities, which included structural racism, environmental inequalities, and systemic oppression, through community engaged research.
“Having a Little Faith: Overcoming Pandemic-Related Challenges to Designing and Implementing a COVID-19 Testing Trial in African American Churches” has been published in a special supplement focused on RADx-UP in the American Journal of Public Health.
The article details how the Faithful Response project engaged their long-term faith-health-academic partnership (Calvary Community Outreach Network, the Kansas City, Mo. Health Department, and the UMKC), while also expanding to the Clergy Response Network, to work on a religiously and culturally tailored, multilevel intervention or a standard COVID-19 education intervention study arm.
Also as part of this project, the team worked to address the COVID-19 myths while also providing accessible and acceptable COVID-19 testing.
Investigators on the project: Jannette Berkley-Patton Ph.D., Carole Bowe Thompson BS, Turquoise Templeton MS, Sarah Finocchario-Kessler Ph.D., Eric Williams BS, Cassandra Wainright , Frank T. Materia Ph.D., Lesha Dennis BS, Delwyn Catley Ph.D., Tacia Burgin MA, Kathryn P. Derose Ph.D., MPH, Andrea Bradley-Ewing MPA, MA, Alex Geyer BS, Stefanie R. Ellison M.D., and Jenifer E. Allsworth Ph.D.
Read the full article here.