Implementation of School-Based COVID-19 Testing Programs in Underserved Populations

We describe key implementation barriers and strategies that have been operationalized across 5 projects working to help schools with predominantly underserved populations who have faced significant COVID-19 –related health disparities. We leveraged a key framework from the implementation science field to identify the challenges and used a matching tool to align implementation strategies to these challenges. Our findings suggest that the biggest obstacles to COVID-19 testing were the perceived relativ e advantages versus burden of COVID-19 testing, limited engagement with the target beneficiaries (eg, families, students, staff), and innovation complexity. Common strategies to overcome these challenges included identifying and preparing testing champions, altering incentive and allowance structure s, assessing for readiness, and identifying barriers and facilitators. We aim to augment existing implementation guidance for schools by describing common barriers and recommended solutions from the implementation science field. Our results indicate a clear need to provide implementation support to schools to facilitate COVID-19 testing as an added layered mitigation strategy.
Source: PEDIATRICS - Category: Pediatrics Source Type: research