School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences, Monash University, Frankston, Victoria, Australia.
Discipline of Podiatry, School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
J Glob Health. 2022 Sep 3;12:05037. doi: 10.7189/jogh.12.05037.
There are groups in our community who may be more vulnerable to contracting, transmitting, or experiencing negative health impacts of COVID-19 than the general community. They may also have greater difficulty accessing, accepting, and acting upon COVID-19 public health information. Our aim was to understand if vulnerable communities and those who express "COVID-risk" behavioural intentions seek and respond differently to COVID-19 public health information.
This observational, cross-sectional study recruited adults aged over 18 years from the Australian general community and six community groups (people with disabilities and their caregivers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, aged care workers, street-based sex workers, refugees and asylum seekers, and the deaf and hard of hearing). We investigated attitudes and beliefs about COVID-19 public health messages. We identified factors associated with the respondent's perception of the ease of finding information and understanding it, and its relevance to them. We also examined latent classes that were developed based on attitudes to public health measures and vulnerable group categories, along with demographic variables.
We received 1444 responses (n = 1121 general community; n ≥50 for each vulnerable group). The vulnerable groups examined found COVID-19 public health messages as easy, if not easier, to find and understand than the general community. Four latent classes were identified: COVID-safe mask wearers (10% of sample), COVID-safe test takers (56%), COVID-risk isolators (19%) and COVID-risk visitors (15%). The COVID-risk classes (34% of sample) were less likely to consider COVID-19 information easy to find, understandable, and relevant.
Additional public health messaging strategies may be needed for targeting people with "COVID-risk" beliefs and attitudes who appear across the community (general and vulnerable groups) rather than just targeting specific cultural or other groupings that we think may be vulnerable. COVID-risk classes identified through this study were not defined by demographic characteristics or cultural groupings, but were spread across vulnerable communities and the general community. Different approaches for tailoring and delivery of specific public health information for these groups are needed.
我们的社区中有些群体比普通社区更容易感染、传播或受到 COVID-19 的负面影响，他们也可能更难获取、接受和采取 COVID-19 公共卫生信息。我们的目的是了解弱势群体和表达“COVID 风险”行为意向的人是否会以不同的方式寻求和应对 COVID-19 公共卫生信息。
这项观察性的横断面研究招募了来自澳大利亚普通社区和六个社区群体（残疾人和他们的照顾者、原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民、老年护理工作者、街头性工作者、难民和寻求庇护者以及聋哑人）的 18 岁以上成年人。我们调查了对 COVID-19 公共卫生信息的态度和信念。我们确定了与受访者对信息的获取难易程度和理解程度及其相关性的看法相关的因素。我们还根据对公共卫生措施和弱势群体类别的态度以及人口统计学变量，检查了基于潜在类别的分类。
我们收到了 1444 份回复（普通社区 1121 份，每个弱势群体≥50 份）。所检查的弱势群体认为 COVID-19 公共卫生信息比普通社区更容易找到和理解。确定了四个潜在类别：COVID-19 安全口罩佩戴者（样本的 10%）、COVID-19 安全检测者（56%）、COVID-19 风险隔离者（19%）和 COVID-19 风险访问者（15%）。COVID-19 风险类别的人群（占样本的 34%）不太认为 COVID-19 信息易于查找、理解和相关。
可能需要针对具有“COVID 风险”信念和态度的人制定额外的公共卫生信息策略，这些人分布在整个社区（普通社区和弱势群体），而不仅仅是针对我们认为可能处于弱势的特定文化或其他群体。通过这项研究确定的 COVID-19 风险类别不是由人口特征或文化群体定义的，而是分布在弱势群体和普通社区。需要针对这些群体制定和提供特定公共卫生信息的不同方法。
