Bridging Culture and Language: Encouraging Bilingual/Multicultural Individuals to Act as Information Navigators for Their Loved-Ones and Communities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Linguistically diverse communities face barriers to receiving appropriate health information. COVID-19 exacerbated these health-communication inequities. University of Washington researchers surveyed bilingual staff, students, and medical interpreters – desiring training to become effective communicators of COVID-19 information to their social networks and language communities. In response, the COVID-19 Information Navigator Training was developed and pre-tested with professional networks and members of the target audience. The final training comprised three interactive modules and short quizzes. Evaluation surveys measured Information Navigators’ confidence in providing COVID-19 information to their social networks. Surveys included questions on the participants’ language or cultural community, the perceived value of the training, and their ability to communicate COVID-19 information. Among 393 participants who enrolled in the training, 284 completed the survey. Significant differences in confidence before and after the course were found in detecting COVID misinformation in the news and social media (pre-course mean: 3.83, post-course mean: 4.63; absolute mean difference was 0.82 points higher in the post-evaluation on the 5-point likert scale, 95% CI: 0.70–0.93, p < .01). Training multicultural volunteers to disseminate information to their social networks is a promising strategy for reaching linguistically diverse communities with up-to-date information during health emergencies.

Acknowledgments

The COVID-19 Information Navigator Training would not have been possible without all our partners and collaborators. We thank the UW’s Northwest Center for Public Health Practice for their technical support and assistance in developing the training. We especially like to acknowledge Sarah Manchanda, Seonah Jeon, Andrea Scallon, Ashley Bullock, and Erica Ellis. Additionally, we would like to thank the Partnership for Vaccine Confidence team under the Health Promotion Research Center, who gave initial feedback on the training design, allowing us to disseminate the training widely, and provide further educational support for communities. We would like to special recognize the special contributions made by Lia Villaruz, Bruce Bello, Olivia Hicks, Maria Navarro

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, NA, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The UW Northwest Center for Public Health Practice developed this training, which was made possible by a grant from the Pacific Hospital Preservation & Development Authority. For more information about the Pacific Hospital Preservation & Development Authority, visit www.phpda.org.This project was funded in part by the Vulnerable Populations Strategic Initiative (VPSI) of Public Health - Seattle & King County Emergency Medical Services (EMS).This project is supported by the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center cooperative agreement, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health, and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $500,000. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.