Abstract
Following the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, policymakers have been occupied with the questions of whether and how to specially address unique cultural groups coping with the pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the potential for a culturally tailored approach to the transmission of health messages in a time of crisis among two minority populations within Israeli society: the Ultra-Orthodox population and the Arab population. To that end, 380 individuals from Israeli Ultra-Orthodox society and 360 individuals from Israeli Arab society completed a self-reported questionnaire in early April 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study reveal differences between these groups in terms of the effectiveness of different channels for conveying messages and the channels that were preferred, as well as significant relationships between community sense of coherence and the study variables. We found that advocacy and motivation based on values, on the one hand, and recognition of the effectiveness of a culturally tailored approach, on the other, may be the best approach for persuading members of minority populations, who belong to collectivist societies, to comply with epidemic-control instructions.
Highlights
COVID-19 has presented health-care systems with an emergency situation that involves an immediate need to provide appropriate responses, to slow the spread of the virus and to cope with the consequences of infection
Arab society filled out a self-reported questionnaire
The main conclusion that emerges from this study is that when dealing with minority groups, policymakers should be aware of the processes of change that those groups experience
Summary
COVID-19 has presented health-care systems with an emergency situation that involves an immediate need to provide appropriate responses, to slow the spread of the virus and to cope with the consequences of infection. During this crisis, policymakers have faced a need to convey messages to different ethnic-minority populations with unique cultural characteristics. Our goal in this study was to evaluate the inherent potential in a culturally tailored approach to messaging related to personal and public health during a severe health crisis, with a particular focus on the Ultra-Orthodox and Arab minorities in Israel. The two populations are both characterized by collective, family and social values that encourage social connections and social contact, including group religious activities that may fuel the spread of the virus
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