Back to school: a qualitative study evaluating a community-informed COVID-19 risk communication intervention for rural elementary school children and their families.

BACKGROUND

ReOpening Schools Safely and Educating Youth (ROSSEY) was a cluster randomized controlled trial of a risk communication intervention for COVID-19 prevention to promote safe return to school among students in a rural, agricultural community.

PURPOSE: This qualitative study evaluated the implementation of a risk communication intervention and a school district's COVID-19 testing program through parent focus groups and interviews with school staff and students.

METHODS

Parents (n = 37), students (n = 19), and school staff (n = 14) from seven schools that received the intervention shared their experience via focus groups and interviews informed by the RE-AIM framework. Deductive and inductive coding was conducted by four data analysts. Themes were validated with community members.

RESULTS

Parent focus groups, student and staff interviews provided insight into the ROSSEY study implementation. We identified five main themes: (i) social and financial drivers of participation; (ii) personal beliefs and unique challenges to research participation; (iii) intervention reinforced knowledge and shifted behavior; (iv) the appeal of comic books and videos supported adoption; and (v) multimodal communication and partnerships enhanced implementation.

CONCLUSIONS

The risk communication intervention was deemed culturally appropriate, reinforced previous knowledge, and encouraged adoption of preventive behaviors. The partnership with the school district and collaboration with the district's COVID-19 testing program ensured success of recruitment, study implementation, and adoption of preventive behaviors.