Cooperation between public health and science for the implementation of regional prevention strategies

Project steering group

Dr. Andreas Deckert, Dr. Ivonne Morales,  Prof. Dr. Claudia Denkinger & Prof. Dr. Till Bärnighausen

Project coordination

Dr. Tobias Eckert

Background and Aim

In the course of SARS-CoV2, it has been shown that a close interlinking of the public health service (ÖGD) with research institutions leads to rapid and new findings that result in effective public health measures. The long-term goal of this research project is to closely link the implementation of prevention measures by public health departments in Baden-Wurttemberg with accompanying research and thus generate evidence-based approaches to solutions.

Therefore, the HIGH initiated a couple of subprojects aiming to…

1. Improve outbreak-preparedness
2. Evaluate strategies and public health campaigns to prevention infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases
3. Develop and implement communication strategies to prevent infectious diseases

Subprojects

1. Spatio-temporal analysis of the COVID19 pandemic- A social media analysis
2. Evaluation of preventive strategies of the public health service in Baden-Wurttemberg – An Intervention Mapping Approach
3. Vaccination willingness in Migrants – Assessing facilitators and barriers towards COVID-19 vaccinations and development of a video-based intervention
4. Implementation of COVID-19 Point-of-Care diagnostics—knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions among healthcare professionals in Germany
5. Feasibility of scalable self-sampling strategies for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies
6. Toolbox

Subproject 1 - Spatio-temporal analysis of the COVID19 pandemic- A social media analysis

This study presents a spatial-temporal analysis of 1.) COVID-19 infection rates and 2. ) the population’s attitudes (including emotions) towards COVID-19 and COVID-19-related protective policy measures in all districts of Baden-Wurttemberg. Therefore, RKI data as well as data from Twitter are used. A deeper understanding about associations between COVID-19 infection rates and attitudes expressed in Social Media over the temporal course may help to empower public health services to create tailored communication campaigns to promote acceptance of protective policy measures.

Subproject 2 – Evaluation of preventive strategies of the public health service in Baden-Wurttemberg

An Intervention-Mapping approach is applied to evaluate the strategies for the prevention of 1.) infectious diseases and 2. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) via the promotion of a healthy diet and physical activity. This mixed-methods-study includes 1.) a quantitative media-analysis and 2.) semi-structured interviews with experts of the public health services. This present study results will help to develop evidence-based guidelines for prevention as well as to promote networking between research groups and public health services.

Subproject 3 - Vaccination willingness in Migrants

In a first step, facilitators and barriers towards vaccinations in general and towards COVID-19 among migrants were assessed in a qualitative study. The results demonstrate fear towards side effects, lack of trust in authorities and discrimination as barriers to vaccinations. The role and opinions of family was important in the decision-making process of being vaccinated across all migrant nationalities. Based on these results we developed a video-based intervention tailored to the recipients’ socio-cultural background, using a Human-Centered-Design (HCD) approach. The animated video provides information on benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccinations, aiming to increase willingness to get vaccinated. The video is delivered in Arabic, Turkish, German and English to address migrants’ mother tongue. See here:

German

English

Arabic

Turkish

Further focus group discussions revealed high acceptance in migrants and multipliers, such as employees of public health services. Especially the socio-cultural tailoring was highly appreciated by migrants. Due to the urgent need for action to increase vaccination willingness in Ukrainian refugees, this approach is adapted to the needs of this target group.

The next aim is to conduct a study testing the effects on vaccination willingness and acceptance within a quantitative approach.

Subproject 4 - Point of Care Testing

The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, barriers, attitudes and perceptions towards COVID-19 point-of-care (POC) testing and implementation among a population of non-laboratory health professionals in Germany via a structured mixed-methods online survey. 

Subproject 5 - Feasibility of scalable self-sampling strategies for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

This study aims to determine the feasibility and validity of self-collection of capillary blood and saliva as alternatives to venipuncture (serum) for the detection of anti-SARS CoV-2 antibodies. Therefore, the diagnostic accuracy between self-collection of capillary blood/saliva in comparison to established methods of venipuncture by professionals is compared.

Subproject 6- Development of best-practice toolbox

Based on the available results of the other subprojects, a catalogue of measures will be developed with recommendations for the situational use of certain tools to improve participation rates in specific screening and prevention projects.