Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 26, 2025
A Finite Element Approach for Locating the Center of Resistance of Maxillary Teeth
Published on: April 8, 2020
Centering Health Equity Within COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Connecticut's Community Outreach Specialist Program
Kelly Johnson1, Kadijatou Diallo, Rachel Hennein
1Connecticut Department of Public Health, Hartford, Connecticut (Dr Johnson and Mss Diallo and Soto); Global Health Justice Partnership, Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut (Dr Johnson); Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases (Mss Hennein and Gupta, Mr Shelby, and Dr Davis), Department of Biostatistics (Dr Zhou), Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Section (Drs Davis, Zhou), and Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science (Dr Davis), Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut; Yale National Clinician Scholars Program (Drs Ludomirsky and Nunez-Smith), Equity, Research, and Innovation Center (Ms Weiss and Dr Nunez-Smith), and Center for Research Engagement (Dr Nunez-Smith), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Section of Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut (Dr Ludomirsky); and Section of General Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale New Haven Health System, New Haven, Connecticut (Ms Weiss and Dr Nunez-Smith).
Context:
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted vulnerable populations, including those who are non-English-speaking and those with lower socioeconomic status; yet, participation of these groups in contact tracing was initially low. Distrust of government agencies, anticipated COVID-19-related stigma, and language and cultural barriers between contact tracers and communities are common challenges.
Program:
The Community Outreach Specialist (COS) program was established within the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) COVID-19 contact tracing program to encourage participation in contact tracing and address a need for culturally competent care and social and material support among socially vulnerable and non-English-speaking populations in 11 high-burden jurisdictions in Connecticut.
Implementation:
In partnership with state and local health departments, we recruited 25 COS workers with relevant language skills from target communities and trained them to deliver contact tracing services to vulnerable and non-English speaking populations.
Evaluation:
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from ContaCT, DPH's enterprise contact tracing system. Overall, the COS program enrolled 1938 cases and 492 contacts. The proportion of residents reached (ie, called and interviewed) in the COS program was higher than that in the regular contact tracing program for both cases (70% vs 57%, P < .001) and contacts (84% vs 64%, P < .001). After adjusting for client age, sex, race and ethnicity, language, and jurisdiction, we found that the COS program was associated with increased reach for contacts (odds ratio [OR] = 1.52; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.17-1.99) but not for cases (OR = 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70-0.88). Rapid qualitative analysis of programmatic field notes and meeting reports provided evidence that the COS program was feasible and acceptable to clients and contributed to COVID-19 education and communication efforts.
Conclusion:
A COS program employing a client-centered, community-engaged strategy for reaching vulnerable and non-English-speaking populations was feasible and more effective at reaching contacts than standard COVID-19 contact tracing.
More Related Videos
09:55Bridging the Technology Divide in the COVID-19 Era: Using Virtual Outreach to Expose Middle and High School Students to Imaging Technology
Published on: September 28, 2022
14:43A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting
Published on: January 12, 2018
Related Concept Videos
01:30Community Based Intervention
Foundations of Community Mental Health Programs
Central to the success of community-based interventions is the...
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-I
Daycare centers
They provide several functions. Some facilities care for healthy newborns and children whose parents work, while others are medically focused and care for...
01:26Principles of Disease Surveillance
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-II
Rural health centers are specialized care facilities in remote locations with very few medical personnel. The primary care providers who run the centers are mostly Registered Nurse Practitioners. Here, emergency treatment is provided to critically ill or injured patients before they are transferred to the closest hospital. Fortunately, due to advancement in technology, many rural healthcare facilities and professionals have easy access to diagnostic and treatment...
01:25Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
01:18Steps in Outbreak Investigation