TY - JOUR
T1 - Design and implementation of a health messaging protocol employed for use within a COVID-19 health dissemination platform
AU - Colombo, Paulina M.
AU - Freylersythe, Sarah
AU - Sprinkle, Mary Margaret
AU - Ernst, Kacey C.
AU - Yubeta, Marcela
AU - Barbati, Juliana L.
AU - Merchant, Nirav
AU - Iyengar, Sriram
AU - Crane, Tracy E.
AU - Oxnam, Maliaca
AU - Rains, Stephen A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The development and implementation of this messaging protocol would not have been possible without the help of many people and agencies. Within the University of Arizona, we would like to thank Nick Eddy and Hagan Franks for their computer science expertise. We would also like to thank Angela Yung, for her data management contributions and Julissa Alvarez, Zul Santiago, Marbella Aguilar, Daniela Gracia Rios for their assistance in content translation.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Colombo, Freylersythe, Sprinkle, Ernst, Yubeta, Barbati, Merchant, Iyengar, Crane, Oxnam and Rains.
PY - 2022/11/24
Y1 - 2022/11/24
N2 - Introduction: AZCOVIDTXT, a bilingual, two-way information sharing platform was created in April of 2020 in response to rising COVID-19 cases in Arizona. The aim of this paper is to delineate the protocol and processes used to develop and disseminate health messaging to serve as guidance for other groups, universities, or public health programs in the implementation or enhancement of health communication services. Methods: Health messaging formats included website articles, published on the system's website (azcovidtxt.org), infographics posted on social media, and SMS. Social media and SMS infographics were intended to highlight and augment the topics covered in the weekly website articles, to create a seamless multimodal source of reliable COVID-19 information for AZCOVIDTXT enrollees and the broader public. All health messaging information, text message and social media content was planned and reviewed collaboratively by the AZCOVIDTXT team topic experts for accuracy, efficacy, and content consistency. Results: As of July 2021, AZCOVIDTXT provided weekly COVID-19-related health communication to 3,747 participating households located across 225 Arizona zip codes. AZCOVIDTXT has developed and sent 446 unique, bilingual SMS for a total of 271,977 contact points. The team has produced and published 179 website articles, which averaged a combined 7,000-page views per month, and 173 social media posts were made available to 268 followers across three platforms. Discussion: Several programmatic aspects were deemed essential to the success of AZCOVIDTXT. These included (1) addressing community specific needs, (2) creating timely and relevant content, (3) developing an adaptable system, and (4) prioritizing system automation where possible, (5) having an interdisciplinary team approach to identifying and crafting key messages.
AB - Introduction: AZCOVIDTXT, a bilingual, two-way information sharing platform was created in April of 2020 in response to rising COVID-19 cases in Arizona. The aim of this paper is to delineate the protocol and processes used to develop and disseminate health messaging to serve as guidance for other groups, universities, or public health programs in the implementation or enhancement of health communication services. Methods: Health messaging formats included website articles, published on the system's website (azcovidtxt.org), infographics posted on social media, and SMS. Social media and SMS infographics were intended to highlight and augment the topics covered in the weekly website articles, to create a seamless multimodal source of reliable COVID-19 information for AZCOVIDTXT enrollees and the broader public. All health messaging information, text message and social media content was planned and reviewed collaboratively by the AZCOVIDTXT team topic experts for accuracy, efficacy, and content consistency. Results: As of July 2021, AZCOVIDTXT provided weekly COVID-19-related health communication to 3,747 participating households located across 225 Arizona zip codes. AZCOVIDTXT has developed and sent 446 unique, bilingual SMS for a total of 271,977 contact points. The team has produced and published 179 website articles, which averaged a combined 7,000-page views per month, and 173 social media posts were made available to 268 followers across three platforms. Discussion: Several programmatic aspects were deemed essential to the success of AZCOVIDTXT. These included (1) addressing community specific needs, (2) creating timely and relevant content, (3) developing an adaptable system, and (4) prioritizing system automation where possible, (5) having an interdisciplinary team approach to identifying and crafting key messages.
KW - COVID-19
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - health education (MeSH)
KW - health messaging
KW - pandemic response
KW - short message services (SMS)
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U2 - 10.3389/fpubh.2022.942795
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2022.942795
M3 - Article
C2 - 36504998
AN - SCOPUS:85143500262
SN - 2296-2565
VL - 10
JO - Frontiers in Public Health
JF - Frontiers in Public Health
M1 - 942795
ER -