Resolution: S-21-19: INCREASING HEALTH LITERACY WITH REGARDS TO COVID-19 IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC

[Valerie Lile]

WHEREAS, knowledge of the virus among the general public improves outcomes in treatment and prevention of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus¹; and

WHEREAS, health literacy regarding COVID-19 was found to be underestimated in the COVID-19 crisis¹; and

WHEREAS, it was estimated that up to 26% of the American population is considered to have low health literacy in general¹; and

WHEREAS, lack of health literacy is making it harder for adults to understand how they need to take care of themselves and others¹⁰; and

WHEREAS, limited health literacy within migrant and homeless communities make it less likely members will understand and comply with national guidelines put forth by their local governments¹⁴; and

WHEREAS, compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines is predicted by COVID-19 risk perception and trust in science⁵; and

WHEREAS, misinformation claims are considered reliable by a significant amount of people causing risk to public health¹²; and

WHEREAS, the World Health Organization has warned of an ‘infodemic’ due to widespread misinformation claims regarding the virus, how it spreads, and how to cure it¹²; and

WHEREAS, Trusting COVID information sources vary by those in different demographics and beliefs²; and

WHEREAS, a qualitative analysis of Facebook anti-vaccination groups found that these groups offer a range of narratives that blend topics such as safety concerns, conspiracy theories, alternative health and medicine including information centered around Covid-19⁵; and

WHEREAS, this distrust of vaccines is driven by widespread misinformation from both online sources and skeptical communities as well as physicians and scientists who promote them¹⁷; and

WHEREAS, public confidence in vaccination is fragile and trust in science and expertise are threatened¹³; and

WHEREAS, different demographic groups face barriers when trying to access information surrounding COVID-19⁴; and

WHEREAS, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 94% of those not yet vaccinated did not have enough information about when they would be eligible or where to receive the vaccine⁶; and

WHEREAS, members of the Black and Hispanic community are more likely to report they do not have enough information about the vaccine compared to their white counterparts⁶; and

WHEREAS, it was also found that majority of high priority adults surveyed over 65 stated they did not have information about when and where to receive the vaccine⁶; and

WHEREAS, seniors without family members to aid in their care are not able to navigate logistics of receiving the Sars-CoV-2 vaccine due to lack of access or difficulty using the internet⁴; and

WHEREAS, herd immunity in regard to COVID-19 is reliant on either a mass vaccination campaign or natural global immunization over time¹¹; and

WHEREAS, reliance upon natural global immunization would result in increased levels of infection and death rates¹¹; and

WHEREAS, achieving herd immunity with a vaccine that claims 95% efficacy would require a 63% to 76% vaccination rate to achieve herd immunity¹¹; and

WHEREAS, overall, most Americans surveyed soon after the pandemic indicated they trust doctors⁹; and

WHEREAS, greater than two thirds of Americans rate their physician’s ethical standards as “high” or “very high”¹³; and

WHEREAS, only 34% of American expressed the view that they had great confidence in the leaders of the medical profession¹³; and

WHEREAS, these findings point toward the idea of the general public having mistrust towards medical institutions as a whole rather than individual physicians; and

WHEREAS, medical students have the ability to combat misinformation on social media about the COVID-19 pandemic⁴; and

WHEREAS, new strategies are being used to increase physician engagement within their communities to make a positive impact on health outcomes; and

RESOLVED, that the Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA) encourage the AOA to create accessible COVID-19 related facts and provide links to legitimate articles as well as websites such as coronavirus.gov on their social media platforms for the general public to engage with and improve health literacy, and further

RESOLVED, that the Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA) distribute education resources to each COM thus allowing each COM to develop workshop events for students on the value of increasing health literacy with regards to COVID-19 as well as medicine in general to improve health outcomes among  COVID and general patient population, and further

RESOLVED, that the Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA) work with regional leaders to help distribute information to each COM about general COVID information and vaccination schedules that can then be distributed within the community the COM is located in to allow the general population to receive information from a source they are more likely to trust.

Citations:

1. Abdel-Latif MMM. The enigma of health literacy and COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health. 2020;185:95-96. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2020.06.030
2. Beusekom, M. 2020. (n.d.). Trust in COVID info sources varies by demographics, beliefs. CIDRAP. Retrieved January 29, 2021, from https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/10/trust-covid-info-sources-varies-demographics-beliefs
3. Dooling, K. (2021). The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ Updated Interim Recommendation for Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine—United States, December 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm695152e2
4. Graham, J. (2021, February 1). Older Adults Without Family or Friends Lag in Race to Get Vaccines. Kaiser Health News. https://khn.org/news/article/older-adults-without-family-or-friends-lag-in-race-to-get-vaccines/
5. Johnson, N. F., Velásquez, N., Restrepo, N. J., Leahy, R., Gabriel, N., El Oud, S., Zheng, M., Manrique, P., Wuchty, S., & Lupu, Y. (2020). The online competition between pro- and anti-vaccination views. Nature, 582(7811), 230–233. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2281-1
6. Lopes, L. & 2021. (2021, January 22). KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor: January 2021. KFF. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/report/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-january-2021/
7. Mendez, A. (2020, July 22). Teaching Medical Students How to Combat Misinformation on Social Media [Text]. Medical School – University of Minnesota. https://med.umn.edu/news-events/teaching-medical-students-how-combat-misinformation-social-media
8. Nejc, P. Musil, B. (2020). Full article: Modeling compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines: The critical role of trust in science. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2021, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13548506.2020.1772988
9. Ognyanova, K. (n.d.). THE STATE OF THE NATION:A 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY. 298. Ognyanova—THE STATE OF THE NATIONA 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2021, from http://www.kateto.net/COVID19%20CONSORTIUM%20REPORT%20April%202020.pdf

10. Paakkari, L., & Okan, O. (2020). COVID-19: Health literacy is an underestimated problem. The Lancet. Public Health, 5(5), e249–e250. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30086-4
11. Randolph, H. E., & Barreiro, L. B. (2020). Herd Immunity: Understanding COVID-19. Immunity, 52(5), 737–741. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2020.04.012
12. Roozenbeek, J., Schneider, C. R., Dryhurst, S., Kerr, J., Freeman, A. L. J., Recchia, G., van der Bles, A. M., & van der Linden, S. (n.d.). Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world. Royal Society Open Science, 7(10), 201199. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201199
13. Schwartz, J. L. (2020). Evaluating and Deploying Covid-19 Vaccines—The Importance of Transparency, Scientific Integrity, and Public Trust. New England Journal of Medicine, 383(18), 1703–1705. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2026393
14. Shadmi, E.. Health equity and COVID-19: Global perspectives | International Journal for Equity in Health | Full Text. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2021, from https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12939-020-01218-z
15. Szmuda, T., Özdemir, C., Ali, S., Singh, A., Syed, M. T., & Słoniewski, P. (2020). Readability of online patient education material for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): A cross-sectional health literacy study. Public Health, 185, 21–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.05.041
16. The territorial impact of COVID-19: Managing the crisis across levels of government. (n.d.). OECD. Retrieved January 29, 2021, from http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/the-territorial-impact-of-covid-19-managing-the-crisis-across-levels-of-government-d3e314e1/
17. Trogen, B., Oshinsky, D., & Caplan, A. (2020). Adverse Consequences of Rushing a SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine: Implications for Public Trust. JAMA, 323(24), 2460. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.8917

Submitted by:

Karen Khangura, OMS-II, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Amanda Ter Doest, OMS-III, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Amanda McMellon, OMS-III, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Maria Marasco, OMS-II, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Yamini Koyye, OMS-II, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Farheen Ghiasuddin, OMS-II, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Amber Lee, OMS-I, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Sydney Wilderman, OMS-1, Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine

 

Action Taken: [Leave Blank. Will be Approved by the House of Delegates or NotApproved.]

Date:

Effective Time Period: Ongoing

[Austin Smarsh<br>Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine]

I’m writing to inquire as to the wording of the title and overall purpose of this resolution. I think that defining “health literacy” may be beneficial given the resolution is stated to have the aim of “Increasing Health Literacy” without stating how that might be accomplished. It makes me wonder if the aim of this resolution is to provide trusted, accessible, evidence-based COVID-19 information for COM students and surrounding communities or if the aim is to increase health literacy.

In addition, this resolution discusses both COVID-19 misinformation uptake and variable trust of COVID-19 information based on demographics and beliefs. Are both of these factors directly related to health literacy levels and, if so, is there evidence to support?

Finally, when it comes to uptake of health information, there is reason to believe that only providing information does not necessarily result in altered health behavior or increased perceived health literacy (i.e., providing patients with brochures on health conditions does not guarantee increased patient knowledge of the condition or health behaviors associated with the condition).

[Karen Khangura<br>ARCOM]

Point of information from the author: During the open reference committee a question was brought up regarding why not have PHD’s from each COM distribute COVID information. I unfortunately did not have a great answer at the time so just wanted to address that here. The point of this resolution was to create a more cohesive response via all osteopathic schools in response to health literacy within each respective COMs community. Although students could ask PHDs from each school to create handouts there is no guarantee that would occur. I think SOMA has the opportunity to provide at least the basic information to each COM to allow each COM to consider whether they want to pursue this initiative. From there, students can determine whether they want to ask their faculty advisors for more information/ help with distributing information throughout the community. It also ensures that this actually happens when SOMA is providing the basics to students because it’s kick starting the process vs student’s first trying to find a faculty member to lead such a task.

[Briana Cervantes<br>MSUCOM]

Speaking in behalf of my own opinions, I like the spirit of the resolution. I am concerned with its implementation. Who will be distributing these resources to the COMs? Who will be monitoring changes to vaccine schedules, preventative measures and treatments? Some of this information varies state by state. I would imagine this service requires a fiscal amount. I think this resolution can be modified to complete these goals if there is more elaboration on the methods.

[Author]

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