# COVID-19 Testing and Linkage to Care with African American Church and Health Agency Partners

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI KANSAS CITY · 2021 · $1,439,677

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
African Americans (AA) are disproportionately burdened by COVID19 across the spectrum of related cases,
hospitalizations, and deaths compared to Whites. Many multilayered barriers increase risk for COVID19 among
AA including poverty, essential jobs with increased virus exposure, cultural norms (eg, risk denial,
medical/contact tracing mistrust), and limited access to healthcare and other services/resources. These
barriers highlight the need for accessible, trusted COVID19 testing and linkage to care (LTC) services (eg,
health, prevention programs, community resources, contact tracing) to help slow COVID19 spread in AA
communities. The AA church is an institution with extensive influence in AA communities and may be an ideal
setting for increasing reach of COVID19 testing and LTC in hard hit AA communities. Yet, no controlled AA
church-based studies exist on COVID19 testing interventions. The primary aim of this study is to fully test a
culturally/religiously-tailored, church-based COVID19 testing and LTC intervention condition against a non-
tailored intervention condition on COVID19 testing rates at 6 months with adult AA church members and the
community members they serve. Churches will be matched on membership size, denomination and past
participation in church health intervention studies, then randomized to treatment condition. Sixteen churches (8
churches/arm; 45 church and 15 community members/church; N=960 total) will participate in the study. LTC
use, contact tracing approval, and COVID19 prevention behaviors will also be examined at 6 months as
secondary outcomes. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior and Socioecological Model, our community-
engaged approach includes trained church leaders delivering a culturally, church-appropriate COVID19 Toolkit
inclusive of digital tools: a) individual self-help materials and tailored text messages; b) in-person/virtual group
seminars for caregivers of persons with COVID19; c) in-person/virtual church services with COVID19 related
materials/activities (e.g., sermons, testimonials, responsive readings); and d) church-community level LTC
services (eg, insurance, healthcare, prevention programs, community resources, contact tracing) provided
virtually by community health workers, church-community-based re-opening guidelines, and church-based
COVID19 testing events with health agencies. Examination of LTC use and contact tracing approval will aid in
understanding intervention impact on COVID19 testing by addressing participant essential needs. Potential
mediators/moderators related to receipt of COVID-19 testing will be evaluated, and a process evaluation to
determine implementation facilitators, barriers, and fidelity related to increasing COVID19 testing rates. Our
ongoing meetings with our long-term faith and health partners is enabling us to quickly adapt our AA church-
based HIV testing and diabetes prevention interventions for the proposed study. This multilevel study could
prov...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10259191
- **Project number:** 3R01DK124664-01S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI KANSAS CITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jannette Yvonne Berkley-Patton
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,439,677
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-01-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10259191

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10259191, COVID-19 Testing and Linkage to Care with African American Church and Health Agency Partners (3R01DK124664-01S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10259191. Licensed CC0.

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