Understanding COVID: Collaborative Government Campaign for Citizen Digital Health Literacy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The strategy “Understanding COVID” was a Public Health campaign designed in 2020 and launched in 2021 in Asturias-Spain to provide reliable and comprehensive information oriented to vulnerable populations. The campaign involved groups considered socially vulnerable and/or highly exposed to COVID-19 infection: shopkeepers and hoteliers, worship and religious event participants, school children and their families, and scattered rural populations exposed to the digital divide. The purpose of this article was to describe the design of the “Understanding COVID” strategy and the evaluation of the implementation process. The strategy included the design and use of several educational resources and communication strategies, including some hundred online training sessions based on the published studies and adapted to the language and dissemination approaches, that reached 1056 people of different ages and target groups, an accessible website, an informative video channel, posters and other pedagogical actions in education centers. It required a great coordination effort involving different public and third-sector entities to provide the intended pandemic protection and prevention information at that difficult time. A communication strategy was implemented to achieve different goals: reaching a diverse population and adapting the published studies to different ages and groups, focusing on making it comprehensible and accessible for them. In conclusion, given there is a common and sufficiently important goal, it is possible to achieve effective collaboration between different governmental bodies to develop a coordinated strategy to reach the most vulnerable populations while taking into consideration their different interests and needs.

A Deep Dive into the Nexus between Digital Health and Life Sciences Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Editorial Expedition

“…All the other studies [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ] have dealt with the use of DH in the life sciences, which, in addition to bioengineering, touched by all, have examined, from time to time, other categories ( Table 1 ), such as Anatomy [ 8 , 11 ], Bioinformatics [ 14 , 16 ], Cell biology [ 8 , 11 ], Neuroscience [ 8 , 12 , 15 , 17 , 20 ], Physiology [ 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 ], Population biology [ 14 , 16 , 18 , 19 ], and others that are shown in Table 1 .…”

“…Large-scale population surveys have been conducted, both to analyze the impact of biomedical parameters and health determinants on the population, as well as digital literacy, key factors in using DH [ 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”

“…The outcome from “Understanding COVID” (a public health campaign designed in 2020 and launched in 2021 in Asturias in Spain to provide reliable and comprehensive information oriented towards vulnerable populations, which is also related to digital literacy) was reported in [ 15 ].…”

“…The published works on the DH, reported in the collection [ 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], demonstrate the usefulness of DH in connecting various branches of life sciences, especially during the pandemic. The use of DH in contact tracing has been particularly significant, with several studies reporting on its impact and factors influencing its use [ 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…Additionally, DH applications have been used in biomedical diagnostics [ 8 , 11 ], physical activity [ 12 , 13 ], mental health monitoring [ 17 ], and remote healthcare interventions [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”