Extending Care
Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand (Onsite)
Government Funds Nutrition Education and Supports Curricular Adaptations and Virtual Delivery to Effectively Reach Limited-Resource/Culturally Diverse Audiences During Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Celina Wille, Habiba Nur, Abiodun Atoloye, Casey Coombs
Early during the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, Utah experienced high rates of infection and death forcing rapid modification to government-funded nutrition education program delivery across the state. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federally funded government program that provides financial assistance for supplemental food purchases to limited income partcipants. It also provides nutrition education (SNAP-Ed) through Utah State University (USU) Extension, a partner institution. USU Extension coordinates with community organizations to deliver nutrition education using a SNAP-Ed evidence-based curriculum, Create Better Health (CBH). Adhering to state health directives to reduce disease transmission, government funders endorsed Create Better Health curricular adaptations needed to offer classes virtually to low-income and diverse audiences with limited English skills. The nutrition education classes were taught in English, Spanish, and Somali. Lessons in the curriculum were culturally and linguistically adapted for Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants and Somali refugees. We discuss the cultural adaptations of the CBH curriculum and the successes of virtual delivery using Facebook Live and Zoom. We also share best practices for government and community collaboration, virtual delivery of nutrition education including recruitment strategies, culturally appropriate content, participant engagement, and use of tools for program evaluation. Lastly, we review data collection and findings regarding curriculum learning outcomes comparing across the three language groups.
Accessing College Students' COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, and Self-efficacy for Preventive Behavior View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lisa Grace-Leitch, Lesley Green-Rennis, Gloria McNamara
Accurate information, knowledge, and risk perceptions can contribute to behavioral changes such as wearing masks, social distancing, and getting vaccinated, which are currently the ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. While many colleges and universities provide students with information related to COVID-19 from reliable sources, there is a high potential for misinformation and disinformation to spread through online sources and social media. Young adults more often use these forms of information gathering. The health belief model has been shown to have relevance to vaccine behavior. Some of the constructs in the Health Belief Model: perceived effectiveness of the vaccine, perceived risk of acquiring a disease, perceived barriers to vaccinations, and cues to actions, were found to be essential predictors of influenza vaccination acceptance rate. Understanding the level of COVID-19 knowledge and self-efficacy for preventive behavior among college students is crucial in stopping the spread of the disease. Students at an urban community college (males and females aged 18 to 65) were invited to participate in an online survey that utilized three constructs of the Health Belief Model: perceived susceptibility, COVID-19 knowledge, and self-efficacy to determine whether there is a link between these constructs and COVID-19 vaccine acceptability Though Covid-19 knowledge and self-efficacy for preventive behavior were high, only one-third of the respondents thought the vaccines and boosters were safe and felt comfortable getting vaccinated, lowering the population’s vaccine acceptability rate. Of the vaccinated students, seventy-five percent were influenced to get vaccinated by their friends and family members.
