The University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative recently announced its winter quarter 2022 Tier 1 pilot research grants, which includes funding for two projects affiliated with researchers from the Center for an Informed Public.
In all, the Population Health Initiative announced 11 awards that totalled nearly $480,000, which included approximately $270,000 in funding from the initiative plus additional school, college and departmental matching funds.
Tier 1 pilot funding is designed for projects teams to lay an interdisciplinary foundation for a future project to generate proof-of-concept.
The following projects that were funded are affiliated with the CIP:
Exploring COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Pregnant Rural Washingtonians
INVESTIGATORS
- Kristina Adams Waldorf, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Kolina Koltai, Information School, UW Center for an Informed Public
- Rita Hsu, Confluence Health
- Linsey Monaghan, North Olympic Healthcare Network
- Shelby Wilson, Department of Communication
- Alex Stonehill, Department of Communication
- Ekta Dokania, Department of Communication
- Lauren Marcell, School of Medicine
PROJECT ABSTRACT
Although pregnant people tend to be young and healthy, they are a highly vulnerable group to COVID-19 and experience more severe illness and higher rates of maternal death, preterm birth and stillbirth. Public health messaging to pregnant people in the U.S. has been confusing and insufficient, creating a data void which contributed to the spread of misinformation. Vaccination rates in pregnant individuals have lagged the general population and were recently estimated at 42%; only half of those chose to be vaccinated during pregnancy.
In response to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in social media and scores of deaths in unvaccinated pregnant individuals, we developed the One Vax Two Lives social media campaign to promote the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy with a focus on urban and Latinx pregnant populations. In this proposal, we will build capacity in rural Washington by developing new partnerships with obstetrician-gynecologists to investigate COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in rural pregnant populations.
We hypothesize that vaccine hesitancy in pregnant rural Washingtonians is based in low scientific literacy and political influence and that faith- and family-based messaging will increase vaccine confidence. Our study design will involve mixed methods to explore reasons for vaccine hesitancy and reaction to digital content through surveys, focus groups, direct interviews and social media test ads. Completion of this project will enable an R21 proposal to expand the reach of One Vax Two Lives into rural populations of neighboring states to test and refine social media messaging to promote vaccine uptake.
Misinformation Escape Room: Building a Research Agenda for a Gamified Approach to Combating Health Misinformation
INVESTIGATORS
- Chris Coward, Information School, UW Center for an Informed Public
- Julie Kientz, Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering
- Kolina Koltai, Information School, UW Center for an Informed Public
- Jin Ha Lee, Information School, UW Center for an Informed Public
- Rachel Moran, Information School, UW Center for an Informed Public
PROJECT ABSTRACT
This project aims to develop a research agenda for a gamified approach to building resilience to public health misinformation. Building on a promising pilot project, we will (1) develop a research agenda that incorporates expertise on misinformation, games, and health informatics, (2) co-design a proof-of-concept public health escape room, and (3) run a pilot study to generate data for grant proposals and publications.
With conventional information literacy approaches for helping people detect and resist misinformation proving inadequate, escape rooms offer an immersive learning experience to focus on the cognitive biases, emotional triggers and other affective attributes that make misinformation so pernicious. We will conduct design sprints, interview subject matter experts and run a codesign workshop in partnership with the Seattle Public Library to create the prototype, which will also offer multiple escape room sessions to collect research data. This project enables a group of faculty and postdoctoral scholars to merge their disciplinary expertise and build the foundation for future work.
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PICTURED ABOVE: The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus. (UW Photo)
