A Nurse-Community Health Worker-Family Partnership Model: Addressing Uptake of COVID-19 Testing and Control Measures

Historically, health disparities in the US are concentrated among underserved communities and socially vulnerable populations. The disproportionate COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality in communities of color and socioeconomic disadvantage acutely highlight this persistent public health problem, drawing attention to the urgent need for more equitable reach of testing, prevention, and control measures. The proposed research addresses this need using a 2-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) that will evaluate the effectiveness of the Nurse-Community Health Worker (CHW)-Family Partnership intervention in promoting COVID-19 testing uptake, adoption of COVID control measures, and mutual aid capacity at the household level in an underserved and vulnerable population disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Enrolled households will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group where families will receive the Nurse-CHW-Family Partnership intervention including the offer of in-home testing and referral to seasonal influenza vaccination services, or the treatment-as-usual control group, which will be used to measure actual testing rates among public housing residents in relation to participant and household characteristics. The study hypothesis is that the Nurse-CHW-Family Partnership intervention will improve household-level COVID-19 testing uptake, adoption of COVID control measures, and mutual aid capacity relative to the treatment-as-usual control.