# Increasing COVID-19 vaccine uptake through a patient navigation intervention among underserved populations

> **NIH NIH U54** · SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $299,098

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (of funded award)
The novel SARS-CoV-2 continues to spread in the United States, with almost 5 million
confirmed cases of and over 150,000 deaths. Given observed disparities in morbidity,
hospitalization, and mortality across race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, there is a great
need to increase testing access and uptake with rapid return of test results. We propose a
community health worker (CHW)-led approach to facilitate COVID-19 testing for
underserved populations, with a focus on increasing testing access, uptake, and impact among
Latinx, African American, Filipino, and immigrant communities using different testing
implementation strategies. Our project will utilize existing COVID-19 contact tracing and
community partner infrastructure to reach individuals aged 12 and above exposed or at high-risk
of COVID-19 exposure who may be less able to test. We will use a cluster randomized
crossover trial to test mobile and home-based testing strategies for increasing testing uptake
among contacts, referred high-risk friends and family, and the broader community. Our specific
aims are to: 1) Implement COVID-19 testing integrated into community health worker contact
tracing home visits and compare the subsequent uptake of testing for referred high-risk friends
and family in a mobile testing vs. home-based testing approach; 2) Using a community-led rapid
cycle research process, identify effective strategies to promote uptake of COVID-19 testing
through mobile/pop-up testing for Latinx, African American, Filipino, and immigrant populations
exposed or at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 who are not accessing testing; 3) Gather CHW
and community insights to establish best practices for future scale-up and sustainability. We
expect to test over 40,000 individuals through these efforts. The project will contribute to health
disparity reductions in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality and produce high impact through the
our core strengths in drawing on local knowledge, the team’s existing community partnerships,
use of culturally-competent community healthcare workers, point-of-care rapid and inexpensive
testing, and the use of real-time geospatial data from our contact tracing program to prioritize
locations for mobile pop-up testing. Our focus on underserved populations with high COVID-19
exposures without prior testing access will inform both future testing and vaccination efforts.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10403900
- **Project number:** 3U54CA132384-10S4
- **Recipient organization:** SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard Matthew Cripps
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $299,098
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10403900

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10403900, Increasing COVID-19 vaccine uptake through a patient navigation intervention among underserved populations (3U54CA132384-10S4). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-16 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10403900. Licensed CC0.

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