A Community-Engaged Social Marketing Campaign to Promote Equitable Access to COVID-19 Services Among Latino Immigrants.

To address disparities in COVID-19 outcomes among Latinos with limited English proficiency in Maryland, our team developed a culturally congruent intervention that coupled a statewide social marketing campaign with community-based COVID-19 services. In the first year, we reached 305 122 people through social media advertisements and had 9607 visitors to the Web site. Social marketing campaigns represent an opportunity to promote COVID-19 testing and vaccine uptake among Latino populations, especially when they are paired with community services that simultaneously address structural barriers to care. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(3):263-266. https://doi.org/10.2105/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307191).

HIV-related stigma among Spanish-speaking Latinos in an emerging immigrant city following the Solo Se Vive Una Vez social marketing campaign.

HIV-related stigma exacerbates Latino immigrants' risk of HIV infection and delayed care. Following the implementation of the social marketing campaign Sólo Se Vive Una Vez (You Only Live Once) to increase HIV testing that addressed stigmatizing beliefs, we conducted a survey among Latinos in Baltimore, Maryland (N = 357). The aims of this paper are to 1) characterize the sociodemographic characteristics, HIV-related stigma beliefs, and testing behaviors of the survey respondents by campaign exposure, and 2) model the effects of Vive exposure on stigma beliefs and testing behaviors. Comparing post-campaign survey respondents exposed and unexposed to the campaign to survey findings previously obtained and reported before the campaign implementation, respondents to the post-Vive survey continued to hold high levels of stigma beliefs, and compared to the pre-Vive survey sample, were more likely to hold four or more stigmatizing beliefs (from the six survey items). Among the post-Vive survey respondents, those for whom religion was important or very important had an increased odds of 1.6 of holding four or more stigmatizing beliefs. Survey respondents who were exposed to the campaign, however, had an increased odds of 2.25 of reporting ever having been tested for HIV. Our findings demonstrate the importance of the changing social context in addressing stigma within emerging immigrant communities and highlight the critical role of religious leaders in efforts to address HIV-related stigma.

A Crowdsourcing Open Contest to Design a Latino-Specific COVID-19 Campaign: Mixed Methods Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Latino communities are among the most heavily impacted populations by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States due to intersectional barriers to care. Crowdsourcing open contests can be an effective means of community engagement but have not been well studied in Latino populations nor in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to (1) implement and evaluate a crowdsourcing open contest to solicit a name for a COVID-19 social marketing campaign for Latino populations in Maryland and (2) conduct a thematic analysis of submitted entries to guide campaign messaging. METHODS: To assess the level of community engagement in this crowdsourcing open contest, we used descriptive statistics to analyze data on entries, votes, and demographic characteristics of participants. The submitted text was analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: We received 74 entries within a 2-week period. The top 10 entries were chosen by community judges and the winner was decided by popular vote. We received 383 votes within 1 week. The most common themes were collective efficacy, self-efficacy, and perceived benefits of COVID-19 testing. We used these themes to directly inform our social marketing intervention and found that advertisements based on these themes became the highest performing. CONCLUSIONS: Crowdsourcing open contests are an effective means of community engagement and an agile tool for guiding interventions to address COVID-19, including in populations impacted by health care disparities, such as Latino communities. The thematic analysis of contest entries can be a valuable strategy to inform the development of social marketing campaign materials.

Sólo Se Vive Una Vez: Evaluation of a Social Marketing Campaign Promoting HIV Screening and Prevention for Immigrant Latinxs.

Latinxs in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by HIV and more likely to have delayed diagnosis than their non-Latinx peers. We developed and implemented Sólo Se Vive Una Vez (You Only Live Once), the first Spanish-language campaign aimed at improving HIV testing and prevention among Latinx immigrants in Baltimore, Maryland. Sólo Se Vive Una Vez featured a website ( www.solovive.org ) and social marketing campaign promoting free HIV testing through the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) clinic and Latinx outreach team. The campaign was not associated with a change in the overall number of Latinxs obtaining HIV testing. However, Latinx HIV testers who reported being exposed to the campaign had significantly higher rates of high-risk sexual behaviors, mean number of sexual partners, and substance use. The campaign was also associated with increased PrEP referrals through the BCHD Latinx outreach team.

RESUMEN: Los latinos en los Estados Unidos están desproporcionadamente afectados por el VIH y es más probable que sean diagnosticados más tarde que pacientes no latinos. Desarrollamos e implementamos Sólo Se Vive Una Vez, la primera campaña en español dirigida a mejorar la detección y prevención del VIH entre los inmigrantes latinos en Baltimore, Maryland. Sólo Se Vive Una Vez consiste en un sitio web (www.solovive.org) y una campaña en las redes sociales que promueve la prueba gratuita de VIH a través de la clínica del Departamento de Salud de la Ciudad de Baltimore así como la unidad móvil operada por nuestro equipo latino de promotores de salud. La campaña no se asoció con un cambio en el número absoluto de latinos que hicieron la prueba del VIH. Sin embargo, los latinos expuestos a la campaña que se hicieron la prueba del VIH tenían tasas más altas de conductas sexuales de alto riesgo, de parejas sexuales, y de uso de sustancias. La campaña también se asoció con un aumento de referidos a PrEP a través del equipo de promotores de salud latinos.

Sólo Se Vive Una Vez: The Implementation and Reach of an HIV Screening Campaign for Latinx Immigrants.

Latinxs in the United States are disproportionately affected by HIV and present with more advanced disease than their non-Latinx peers, due to numerous barriers to care including HIV stigma. We describe the adaptation, implementation, and reach of Sólo Se Vive Una Vez (You Only Live Once), Baltimore's first social marketing campaign promoting HIV screening among Spanish-speaking Latinxs. The 6-month campaign promoted free HIV testing by addressing HIV stigma. The campaign included a website, a social marketing campaign, community outreach events, and advertisements via radio, billboards, local partners, and buses. During the campaign, there were 9,784 unique website users, and ads were served to over 84,592 people on social media platforms. Among Latinx HIV testers at the Baltimore City Health Department, 31.6% reported having seen or heard of Sólo Se Vive Una Vez and 25.3% of Latinx HIV testers reported that the campaign influenced them to get tested.

Are Parent Activation and Health Literacy Distinct Concepts? A Study in Low Income Urban Populations.

Patient activation (the knowledge, confidence, willingness, and skills to manage one's healthcare) and health literacy have well-established associations with health and healthcare outcomes in adults. However, little is known about parent activation on behalf of children and its relation to health literacy. Our objective was to examine relations between parent activation, health literacy, and parent-provider relationship quality. We surveyed 316 Spanish- or English-speaking parents of publicly-insured patients of a general pediatrics clinic. Surveys included the Parent-Patient Activation Measure (P-PAM), the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), and parent-provider relationship measures. We used chi-square analyses and logistic regression to explore associations stratified by survey language. Spanish-speaking parents had significantly lower levels of both parent activation and health literacy compared with English-speaking parents (p<.001). Parent activation was not associated with health literacy, suggesting that they are distinct concepts. Because parent activation is a more easily modifiable trait than health literacy, it may present an opportunity to improve outcomes in less health literate populations. We did not find expected associations between parent activation, health literacy and parent-provider relationship quality. Further study is needed to understand how parent activation relates to pediatric outcomes, and if it is an appropriate intervention target to address child healthcare disparities in populations with limited health literacy.