The study, A Community Based Approach to Understanding & Improving Adherence to CDC COVID-19 Guidelines, collected survey data on vaccine hesitancy from January through May of 2021. This project was one of eight funded by the CCTST COVID-19 Critical Community Challenge Grant (C5G) Program, which provided opportunities for investigators from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Greater Cincinnati community to develop and implement proposals that would have a direct impact on COVID-19 in the Greater Cincinnati community of 14 counties in Southwest Ohio.
The project is headed by co-investigators Jack Kues, Ph.D., and Melinda Butsch-Kovacic, Ph.D.. It is funded by the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
A brief summary of the project:
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Mask-wearing and social distancing are at rates less than 50% despite widespread requests and calls by community leaders and public health officials. It is imperative to better understand behavior and underlying motivation in order to design meaningful messaging in this area.
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We are conducting a broad-based community survey, as well as focus groups and personal interviews with respondents to better understand current behavior and motivation.
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The results of our study will serve as a foundation for developing new messaging and to help overcome current barriers to increasing mask-wearing and social distancing behavior that does not overtly challenge underlying beliefs or fears.
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