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Objectives: To better understand the experiences of Black pregnant women during COVID-19, we examined Black pregnant clients' and doulas' experiences with perinatal support services amid COVID-19's social distancing protocols. Methods: We used qualitative description, employing a social constructionist framework to interview 12 perinatal support doulas and 29 Black women who were pregnant or gave birth during the pandemic about their experiences during the pandemic, when social distancing was required. Results: Three key themes were identified: (1) Clients experienced increased social isolation; (2) Doulas' exclusion from medical visits limited women's access to support and advocacy; (3) Doula support as a sisterhood helped clients mitigate effects of COVID isolation. Conclusions for Practice: Doulas should be considered essential support persons for Black pregnant women and should not be excluded from the birthing team. Support through technology is acceptable for some clients but less desirable for others and restricted doula's ability to build rapport and be hands on with their clients. Significance: Despite Cuyahoga County, Ohio being home to world-class medical institutions, a Black, non-Hispanic infant born there is more than twice as likely as a White non-Hispanic infant to die before his or her first birthday (Cuyahoga County Board of Health, 2021). It is thus urgent to identify effective interventions to address such disparate infant mortality rates. Our research discusses one such intervention dedicated to employing Black perinatal support doulas to serve Black women in Cleveland. The research discusses how program clients and staff experienced adjustments to its service model during restrictions that were imposed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Community members may provide useful perspectives on manuscripts submitted to medical journals. Objective: To determine the impact of community members reviewing medical journal manuscripts. Design: Randomized controlled trial involving 578 original research manuscripts submitted to two medical journals from June 2018 to November 2021. Participants: Twenty-eight community members who were trained, supervised, and compensated. Interventions: A total of 289 randomly selected control manuscripts were reviewed by scientific reviewers only. And 289 randomly selected intervention manuscripts were reviewed by scientific reviewers and one community member. Journal editorial teams used all reviews to make decisions about acceptance, revision, or rejection of manuscripts. Main Measures: Usefulness of reviews to editors, content of community reviews, and changes made to published articles in response to community reviewer comments. Key Results: Editor ratings of community and scientific reviews averaged 3.1 and 3.3, respectively (difference 0.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.1 to 0.3), on a 5-point scale where a higher score indicates a more useful review. Qualitative analysis of the content of community reviews identified two taxonomies of themes: study attributes and viewpoints. Study attributes are the sections, topics, and components of manuscripts commented on by reviewers. Viewpoints are reviewer perceptions and perspectives on the research described in manuscripts and consisted of four major themes: (1) diversity of study participants, (2) relevance to patients and communities, (3) cultural considerations and social context, and (4) implementation of research by patients and communities. A total of 186 community reviewer comments were integrated into 64 published intervention group articles. Viewpoint themes were present more often in 66 published intervention articles compared to 54 published control articles (2.8 vs. 1.7 themes/article, difference 1.1, 95% CI 0.4 to 1.8). Conclusions: With training, supervision, and compensation, community members are able to review manuscripts submitted to medical journals. Their comments are useful to editors, address topics relevant to patients and communities, and are reflected in published articles. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03432143 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the extent to which teen participants in a youth development program had a greater empowerment self-connectedness, intrapersonal, and interpersonal skills after participating in the program. Findings from 2 years of a youth development program in East Cleveland, Ohio, are reported. A collaborative health navigator model was used to increase connectedness, empowerment, improve health care access, and ultimately prevent health disparities. Pre-test and post-test surveys covering two 10-month periods for two cohorts of teens collected standardized data on teens' (N = 31) senses of empowerment and connectedness. Focus groups were conducted with both health navigators and teen ambassadors about their experiences with the program and its impact. The quantitative findings were mixed, but qualitative findings suggested that the program helped the teens develop a sense of personal empowerment through increased intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. While long-term research including control groups is needed, the findings suggest that targeted teen programming can be a useful tool in the battle against health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]