Congratulations Angela Parcesepe on NIH R01 Grant

Faculty Fellow Angela Parcesepe was recently awarded a collaborative R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for her project entitled “Brief digital intervention to increase COVID-19 vaccination among individuals with anxiety or depression.”

Percesepe and CO-PI Denis Nash (CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health) will test and pilot interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccination and boosting among US adults with symptoms of anxiety or depression.

People with mental health disorders like anxiety and depression report greater vaccine hesitancy and have lower COVID vaccination levels than the general population. They are also much more likely to endorse COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

One promising way to defend against vaccine misinformation is by using a narrative technique called inoculation theory. It works like the way a vaccine works: by exposing people to weakened forms of misinformation, we can strengthen their ability to spot and resist it.

In a recent online trial, Nash and Parcesepe found that ‘inoculating’ people against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation significantly decreased COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and increased resistance to vaccine misinformation among unvaccinated US adults.

They now plan to adapt and pilot strategies to increase COVID-19 vaccination and boosting among adults with symptoms of anxiety or depression.

They are also recruiting for three positions:

Postdoc: https://cunyisph.org/jobs/mental-health-postdoctoral-fellow/

Project coordinator: https://cunyisph.org/jobs/covid-19-project-coordinator/

Data analyst: https://cunyisph.org/jobs/mental-health-data-analyst/