Improving Public Health Emergency Communication Along the U.S. Southern Border: Insights From a COVID-19 Pilot Campaign With Truck Drivers

Author:

Evans Sarah1ORCID,Rubio Bianca2ORCID,Piat Chris1ORCID,Kamara Hallimah1ORCID,Owen Pearl1ORCID,Duff Bryan1ORCID,Chavez Ana1ORCID,Bligh Leticia R.3ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Sensis, Washington, DC, USA

2. Cherokee Nation Operational Solutions, LLC, San Diego, CA, USA

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA

Abstract

Tens of thousands of trucks cross the U.S.–Mexico border every day. Cross-border truckers’ high mobility puts them at risk of acquiring and transmitting infectious diseases and creates challenges reaching them with emergency public health messaging due to their everchanging locations and limited English proficiency. Despite this community-level transmission risk and documented health disparities related to various infectious and noninfectious diseases experienced by truckers themselves, little has been published to provide practical recommendations on better reaching this audience through innovative outreach methods. This article describes a COVID-19 health promotion campaign that aimed to (1) identify, pilot test, and evaluate effective messages, channels, sources, and settings for reaching truckers on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border and (2) build capacity and sustainability for messaging around future health emergencies. The pilot program ran for 6 weeks, June to August 2023, in three key commercial border crossings and delivered approximately 50,000,000 impressions, nearly 45% more impressions than expected. Considerations for practitioners include the areas of design, implementation, and evaluation. The results provide insight into how to design health promotion messages that resonate with cross-border truckers and how to place these messages where they will be seen, heard, and understood. This includes working effectively with community health workers (CHW), known locally as promotores; identifying local partners that allow CHW to set up onsite; and, working with partner organizations including employers. Practical insights for building evaluation metrics into traditional and grassroots outreach strategies to facilitate real-time optimization as well as continued learning across efforts are also described.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Reference5 articles.

1. Work and Chronic Disease

2. Population Mobility and Infectious Disease

3. National Survey of US Long-Haul Truck Driver Health and Injury

4. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (2023). Border crossings by mode, method, and state [Dataset]. U.S. Department of Transportation. https://data.bts.gov/Research-and-Statistics/Border-Crossings-by-Mode-Border-and-State/erjk-mneb

5. A novel COVID‐19 based truck driver syndemic? Implications for public health, safety, and vital supply chains

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