The Importance of Community Voice: Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Understand the Experiences of African American, Native American, and Latinx People During a Pandemic

IntroductionAlthough the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death rates on racial and ethnic minority com-munities in the US is known, information about how COVID-19 has affected these communities and how community context and perceptions can inform a better response to future health crises needs further exploration. To help achieve these objectives, we used a community-based participatory research approach to gain a better insight into African American, Native American, and Lat-inx communities. MethodsFrom September through December 2020, we conducted 19 focus groups and recruited 142 participants. Participants were selected via a purposeful sampling technique. We used a phenomenology study design to conduct semistructured interviews, thematic ana-lysis to code qualitative data, and descriptive statistics to summar-ize demographic data. ResultsData analysis revealed the following 3 themes: 1) COVID-19 ex-acerbated mistrust, anxiety, and fear in racial and ethnic minority populations, affecting their mental health, 2) understanding so-ciocultural context is essential for emergency response, and 3) ad-apting communication strategies can help address community con-cerns. ConclusionAmplifying the voices of people disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic can help to inform a better response to fu-ture health crises and ultimately reduce health inequity among ra-cial and ethnic minority populations.