The role of digital storytelling methods in promoting health-related outcomes among young adults of color: a systematic review.

Background: Digital storytelling (DST) encourages participants to use technology to create narratives and share personal experiences. Although DST can amplify the voices of groups experiencing marginalization, it is unclear how DST has been used among young adults of color. We also lack a comprehensive understanding of DST's role in addressing health-related outcomes.

Tough talks COVID-19 (TT-C) digital health intervention: multistate randomized controlled trial.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid changes in variant virulence, limited personal protective equipment availability, and diminished hospital capacity necessitated aggressive vaccine distribution. To promote COVID-19 vaccination to historically underserved populations, the National Institutes of Health funded a small group of clinical trials, including the Tough Talks for COVID-19 vaccine (TT-C) digital health intervention (DHI) randomized controlled trial (RCT). Black young adults, 18-29 years, who were unvaccinated or insufficiently vaccinated against COVID-19 were recruited via social media in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina and randomized to the intervention or standard of care control (N = 360).

Evaluating concurrency and gaps between self-report and vaccine card data for COVID-19 vaccination.

We compared self-reported vaccination to vaccine card data to assess concurrency in a sample of Black young adults in Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina. We described vaccine card versus self-reported data over time and examined discrepancies in reporting between these two sources. Results indicated strong currency suggesting collection of self-reported data may be an acceptable proxy to requiring official vaccine documentation.

Greater Improvements in Vaccination Outcomes Among Black Young Adults With Vaccine-Resistant Attitudes in the United States South Following a Digital Health Intervention: Latent Profile Analysis of a Randomized Control Trial.

Background: Negative attitudes toward vaccines and suboptimal vaccination rates among African American and Black (Black) Americans have been well documented, due to a history of medical racism and human rights violations in the United States. However, digital health interventions (DHI) have been shown to address racial disparities in several health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, HIV, and maternal health. The Tough Talks COVID (TT-C) study was a randomized controlled trial of a DHI designed to empower Black young adults in the United States South to make informed, autonomous decisions about COVID-19 vaccine uptake by addressing structural barriers and misinformation about vaccines.

Barriers, Facilitators and Opportunities for HIV Status Disclosure Among Young Men Who Have Sex With Men: Qualitative Findings from the Tough Talks Intervention.

Disclosing one's HIV status can involve complex individual and interpersonal processes interacting with discriminatory societal norms and institutionalized biases. To support disclosure decision-making among young men who have sex with men (YMSM) living with HIV, we developed Tough Talks™, an mHealth intervention that uses artificially intelligent-facilitated role-playing disclosure scenarios and informational activities that build disclosure skills and self-efficacy. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 YMSM living with HIV (mean age 24 years, 50% Black) who were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial assessing Tough Talks™ to understand their experiences with HIV status disclosure.