Utilizing the Community Health Club Model to Improve COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Among Latina Women

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is a widespread issue, especially among communities of color. Latino/a communities have faced higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19, while eliciting higher vaccine hesitancy rates. Using Community Health Clubs established in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, community health workers (CHWs), along with a team of medical students and public health experts, developed and implemented a virtual club-based platform aimed at inspiring confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine.

Through a campus-community partnership, this project aimed to increase confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine among Latina women in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

A four-session vaccine education curriculum, informed by club member concerns and co-developed by medical students and community health workers, was implemented over 2 months. The program was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design comparing outcomes among 62 program participants and a matched control group.

Participants had 2.33 times the odds of receiving at least one dose of the vaccine compared with individuals in the control group. Furthermore, 97% of participants felt confident or very confident in their ability to share learned information and 90% of participants reporting sharing information with 3 or more peers.

Collaboration among community health workers, medical students, and public health experts to develop an education curriculum aimed at addressing community identified needs has proven to be effective at improving trust in vaccinations and increasing self-reported vaccination rates among Latina women on the Texas-Mexico border. Adapting these clubs to additional vulnerable communities could be effective in aiding vaccination efforts and improving health literacy.