COVID Community-Engaged Testing in Alabama: Reaching Underserved Rural Populations Through Collaboration

Authors

Christopher Greer McCollum
Thomas N Creger
Aadia I Rana
Lynn T Matthews
Stefan D Baral
Greer A Burkholder
William A Curry
Latesha Elopre
Faith E Fletcher
Sydney Grooms
Emily B Levitan
Max Michael
Barbara Van Der Pol
Michael J Mugavero

Publication Date

10-1-2022

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2022.306985

PMID

35952331

PMCID

PMC9480487

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

10-1-2022

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Alabama, COVID-19, COVID-19 Testing, Humans, Rural Population, Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

Rural communities are often underserved by public health testing initiatives in Alabama. As part of the National Institutes of Health's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics‒Underserved Populations initiative, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, along with community partners, sought to address this inequity in COVID-19 testing. We describe the participatory assessment, selection, and implementation phases of this project, which administered more than 23 000 COVID-19 tests throughout the state, including nearly 4000 tests among incarcerated populations. (