This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Decades of experience in HIV messaging strategies, what works and what doesn’t, can be applied to COVID-19 messaging to help improve outcomes in prevention efforts and in reducing transmission, note Jennifer Carter, MPH, and Margaret Dunne, MSc, researchers in Westat’s Public Health & Epidemiology Practice. In their Issue Brief Lessons Learned from HIV Messaging Can Help with COVID-19 Prevention Efforts (PDF), they provide a brief history of the HIV epidemic and outreach activities, and how a combination of communications efforts that were customized and applied to specific communities for better stakeholder buy-in, and, ultimately, improved health outcomes.
“Finding solutions to engage stakeholders and hard-to-reach populations about HIV in their communities is key,” explains Ms. Carter. “There is a lot of overlap when you examine the messaging issues and strategies of HIV and COVID.” Their issue brief details a multi-pronged approach to find the best way to engage individuals and communities.
Different communities face specific barriers and being able to understand all perspectives is important, adds Ms. Dunne: “For a communication strategy to be successful to change health behaviors, you have to hear the concerns of the communities and understand their challenges.”
World AIDS Day, December 1, is acknowledged as a global health day, and the solutions from this decades-long challenge can be built on to help inform ways to eradicate new challenges, like COVID-19.
-
Perspective
Diverse Journeys: Westat Women in LeadershipMarch 2024
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re shining a spotlight on the remarkable women leaders at Westat. Their diverse backgrounds, experiences, and insights have helped…
-
Perspective
Spotlight on Maternal Mental HealthMarch 2024
Mental health conditions are the most common complications during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies mental health…
-
Perspective
Access to Birthing-Friendly Facilities for Maternal CareFebruary 2024
Preventable maternal mortality in the U.S. has grown considerably and spurred the federal government into action, most noticeably with the development of the White House…