Incentives of up to $75 are available for Pacific Islander volunteers willing to participate in an ongoing University of Guam-led study.<\/p>\n
The study, called the\u00a0UOG RADx-UP: Protecting Life Project, seeks to learn more about Pacific Islanders\u2019 knowledge and understanding of COVID-19 and testing in order to decrease the number of deaths related to the virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Individuals of CHamoru and Chuukese descent account for nearly half of all COVID-related deaths in Guam. And\u00a0Pacific Islanders\u2014more specifically the indigenous people of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Tonga, Hawaii, and Palau\u2014collectively have among the highest morbidity and mortality rates associated with COVID-19 in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Participants of the study\u00a0will be asked to complete two confidential questionnaires and will have the option to also provide a specimen for COVID-19 testing. At-home test kits are available to complete the optional testing.<\/p>\n
Each participant will receive gift card incentives,\u00a0worth up to $75,\u00a0for completing the surveys, for attending an educational session on COVID-19 prevention and testing, and for each additional volunteer he or she refers.<\/p>\n
Eligible participants must:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 self-identify as Pacific Islander\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 be 18 years of age or older\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 have never tested positive for COVID-19\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 be in Guam for at least three months\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 not have a bleeding problem or disorder, an immune deficiency disorder, or an autoimmune disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This study is one of 69 projects across the United States funded by the National Institutes of Health. RADx-UP stands for the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (in) Underserved Populations. This project is a partnership between the University of Guam and the University of Hawai`i John A. Burns School of Medicine, and both sites are actively seeking to recruit up to 800 participants in Guam and 4,000 participants in Hawaii.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To determine eligibility, interested participants may visit\u00a0https:\/\/url.uog.edu\/radxup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For more information, contact a UOG RADx-UP research associate from 8am to 5pm on weekdays at (671) 735-0215 or via email at\u00a0radxup@triton.uog.edu. The project is also on Facebook as \u201cUOG RADx-UP Protecting Life Project.\u201d\u00a0(UOG)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Incentives of up to $75 are available for Pacific Islander volunteers willing to participate in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":360282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4744],"class_list":["post-360280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-pacific-islander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}