COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors Are Congruent Within Social Networks of Disenfranchised Hispanic and Criminal Legal Involved Community Members

Victoria Umutoni, Department of Public Health Sciences, The University of Chicago
Khavita Bhavan, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Nickolas Zaller, University of Arkansas
Amelia Knopf, Indiana University Indianapolis
Moctezuma Garcia, San Jose State University
Russell A. Brewer, Department of Public Health Sciences, The University of Chicago
Makenna Meyer, Department of Public Health Sciences, The University of Chicago
Faye Taxman, George Mason University
O’Dell Johnson, University of Arkansas
Matthew Aalsma, Indiana University Indianapolis
John Schneider, Department of Public Health Sciences, The University of Chicago

Abstract

The COVID-19 (COVID) pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people who have low income and identify as Hispanic or Latinx (PLIH) as well as those with criminal Legal Involvement (CLI). These two groups, and their intersection, are often disenfranchised from livable wage employment, basic social services, and healthcare, which are vital to prevent the spread of COVID. We examined baseline data from the Community Network-Driven COVID Testing of Marginalized Population in the Central US (C3) which included 1036 participants: 32.1% PLIH, 39.6% CLI, 10.6% who identified as both PLIH and CLI, and 17.6% who were neither PLIH nor CLI. Participants were more likely to engage in COVID preventive behaviors if their social networks engaged in the same behaviors. For example, participants had 9.38 times the odds of being vaccinated if more than 50%, according to their own estimation, of their network were vaccinated (aOR: 9.38, 95%, CI: 4.22–20.84).