Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, United States.
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, United States.
Front Public Health. 2024 Sep 20;12:1435231. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1435231. eCollection 2024.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing health disparities among historically and currently underserved, underresourced, and marginalized communities worldwide. These communities faced disproportionate COVID-19 morbidity and mortality and were generally less likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine once it became widely available to the public. Community engagement is an approach that can help bridge these inequities. This community case study adapted and implemented an existing community engagement framework to tailor a statewide vaccine equity effort that addresses community-specific priorities during a public health emergency. The adapted framework includes the following key phases: (1) creating an environment for community engagement; (2) making the work relevant; (3) narrowing the focus; (4) planning and conducting the work; and (5) evaluating the work. All of these supported the successful establishment of a statewide collaboration that consisted of various partners from various sectors who shared a collective commitment to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and address barriers to vaccination among the diverse communities in Nevada. Ultimately, a community engagement framework can provide a roadmap to navigate the dynamic and multifaceted nature of equity-related work by paving the way for meaningful interventions to mitigate health disparities.
COVID-19 大流行加剧了全球历史上和当前服务不足、资源匮乏和边缘化社区中存在的健康差距。这些社区面临不成比例的 COVID-19 发病率和死亡率，并且一旦 COVID-19 疫苗广泛向公众提供，他们通常不太可能接种疫苗。社区参与是一种可以帮助弥合这些不平等的方法。本社区案例研究对现有的社区参与框架进行了调整和实施，以制定全州范围的疫苗公平工作，在公共卫生紧急情况下解决社区特定的优先事项。经过调整的框架包括以下关键阶段：（1）为社区参与创造环境；（2）使工作具有相关性；（3）缩小重点；（4）规划和开展工作；（5）评估工作。所有这些都支持成功建立了全州范围的合作，其中包括来自不同部门的各种合作伙伴，他们共同承诺提高 COVID-19 疫苗的信心，并解决内华达州不同社区接种疫苗的障碍。最终，社区参与框架可以为解决与公平相关工作的动态和多方面性质提供路线图，为减轻健康差距铺平道路。
