Do Community-Engaged Strategies Improve Vaccination Rates?

A recent study led by Westat’s Associate Vice President for Public Health, Simani Price, PhD, was recently published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), evaluating the National Institute of Health’s Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Regional Teams. The article, “Effectiveness of Community-Engaged Research Strategies in Increasing COVID-19 Vaccinations in Targeted Communities: The Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Regional Teams,” is part of a special issue for AJPH highlighting community-engaged research. Such research helped reduce the COVID-19 burden in populations who were disproportionally affected by the pandemic, particularly racial and ethnic minorities as well as socioeconomically disadvantaged populations and underserved rural populations. 

Findings from the outcome evaluation were presented, which used a quasi-experimental design and analyzed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) COVID-19 vaccination data over time to estimate the effect of CEAL. Among the coauthors of this study were Westat researchers Robyn Ferg, PhD, Elizabeth Eisenhauer, PhD, Melanie Chansky, MAA, and Jean Opsomer, PhD.