Dr. Noe Crespo is an associate professor in Health Promotion and Behavioral Science and the Division Head of the Health Promotion and Behavioral Science Division in the School of Public Health. He has a background in Type 2 Diabetes work, involving the role of healthy eating and physical activity in preventing chronic diseases in underserved populations. The initial Covid-19 lockdown motivated Dr. Crespo to start researching how Covid-19 disproportionately impacted minority populations.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Crespo has been working on a variety of Covid-19 related projects. One of these projects includes the National Institute of Health-funded Communivax project. This project aims to evaluate and assess community access to vaccines and strengths by identifying what resources are available to the community. The goal is to mitigate Covid-19 impacts and gather information from existing data and key informants, and community leaders in the San Diego region to better serve the community. With the first phase of the project complete, the second phase includes interviewing community members who can provide lived experiences to learn how COVID has impacted people’s daily life and inform policymakers about the community’s perspective. One aspect of this project includes asking community members their willingness to get vaccinated, including asking people who are vaccinated or not vaccinated their reasons for the decision. When entering into the second phase, community health is emphasized to implement some of the lessons learned and develop resources that can be given out to communities.
Dr. Crespo is also involved in another National Institute of Health-funded project, an intervention focused on reducing the risk of exposure and infection to Covid-19 testing behaviors. This intervention tests prevention strategies tailored to the content and the realities of people’s lives. This project is being conducted in combination with Family Health Centers of San Diego.
Dr. Crespo’s Covid-19 research will have a direct impact on the community. Dr. Crespo states this is an emergency – it is vital to use all of his experience and apply that to work that directly impacts the pandemic. The pandemic isn’t over and might be long-term; therefore, groundwork and frameworks need to be set for long-term research in different areas disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.
