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Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam

Pacific Islanders residing in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands have had among the highest COVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality rates in the U.S. To reduce this disparity, we conducted a study to increase the reach and uptake of COVID-19 testing in Guam. Participants, who completed a pre-su...

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Autores principales: Leon Guerrero, Rachael T., Mummert, Angelina G., Rios, Dareon C., Mian, Niza C., Cruz, Teofila P., Siriwardhana, Chathura, Yanagihara, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10341953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37444149
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136302
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author Leon Guerrero, Rachael T.
Mummert, Angelina G.
Rios, Dareon C.
Mian, Niza C.
Cruz, Teofila P.
Siriwardhana, Chathura
Yanagihara, Richard
author_facet Leon Guerrero, Rachael T.
Mummert, Angelina G.
Rios, Dareon C.
Mian, Niza C.
Cruz, Teofila P.
Siriwardhana, Chathura
Yanagihara, Richard
author_sort Leon Guerrero, Rachael T.
collection PubMed
description Pacific Islanders residing in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands have had among the highest COVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality rates in the U.S. To reduce this disparity, we conducted a study to increase the reach and uptake of COVID-19 testing in Guam. Participants, who completed a pre-survey on demographics, health status, history of COVID-19 testing and vaccination, access to COVID-19 testing, sources of COVID-19 information, and knowledge and attitudes towards COVID-19 test results and transmission, were invited to attend an online educational session about COVID-19 testing and transmission and to complete a post-survey. There were significant positive changes between pre- and post-survey in knowledge and perceptions about COVID-19 testing and transmission, but changes were not necessarily due to exposure to the educational session. Compared to CHamoru participants (n = 380), Other Micronesians (n = 90) were significantly less knowledgeable about COVID-19 transmission and testing, were significantly more likely to not want to know if they had COVID-19, were more likely to believe if they did have COVID-19 there was not much that could be done for them, and that they would have difficulty in getting the needed healthcare. This study is another example of disparities in health knowledge and perceptions of certain Pacific Islander groups.
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spelling pubmed-103419532023-07-14 Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam Leon Guerrero, Rachael T. Mummert, Angelina G. Rios, Dareon C. Mian, Niza C. Cruz, Teofila P. Siriwardhana, Chathura Yanagihara, Richard Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Pacific Islanders residing in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands have had among the highest COVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality rates in the U.S. To reduce this disparity, we conducted a study to increase the reach and uptake of COVID-19 testing in Guam. Participants, who completed a pre-survey on demographics, health status, history of COVID-19 testing and vaccination, access to COVID-19 testing, sources of COVID-19 information, and knowledge and attitudes towards COVID-19 test results and transmission, were invited to attend an online educational session about COVID-19 testing and transmission and to complete a post-survey. There were significant positive changes between pre- and post-survey in knowledge and perceptions about COVID-19 testing and transmission, but changes were not necessarily due to exposure to the educational session. Compared to CHamoru participants (n = 380), Other Micronesians (n = 90) were significantly less knowledgeable about COVID-19 transmission and testing, were significantly more likely to not want to know if they had COVID-19, were more likely to believe if they did have COVID-19 there was not much that could be done for them, and that they would have difficulty in getting the needed healthcare. This study is another example of disparities in health knowledge and perceptions of certain Pacific Islander groups. MDPI 2023-07-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10341953/ /pubmed/37444149 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136302 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Leon Guerrero, Rachael T.
Mummert, Angelina G.
Rios, Dareon C.
Mian, Niza C.
Cruz, Teofila P.
Siriwardhana, Chathura
Yanagihara, Richard
Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam
title Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam
title_full Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam
title_fullStr Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam
title_full_unstemmed Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam
title_short Perceived Barriers and Benefits of COVID-19 Testing among Pacific Islanders on Guam
title_sort perceived barriers and benefits of covid-19 testing among pacific islanders on guam
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10341953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37444149
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136302
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