Competency-Based Recommendations for Health Education Specialists to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 among Adults with COPD

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 is highly contagious respiratory illness that has spread globally to over 200 countries and territories. Like never before, the world has become reliant on effective health education to facilitate behavioral responses that will slow the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The prevention, risk mitigation, and containment of COVID-19 is an extremely high public health priority, especially for adults with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) who have compromised respiratory systems. However, despite being uniquely trained in the health education process, health education specialists have limited guidance for systematically communicating scientific information and personal health recommendations to the public during viral outbreaks. In this commentary, we propose three guidelines, linked to the Areas of Responsibility, Competencies, and Sub-competencies for Health Education Specialists, which we believe will attenuate morbidity and mortality risks associated with COVID-19 among those with underlying pulmonary conditions: 1) conduct novel health education needs assessments that systematically monitor respiratory symptoms and hygienic/sanitary behaviors; 2) build capacity to adapt, implement, and evaluate evidence-based health education strategies that optimize adoption of behaviors that protect lung health; and 3) develop communication plans for effectively and efficiently disseminating lung health education materials that address viral pandemic risk reduction, mitigation, and containment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.