Research

Yonaira Rivera’s scholarship focuses on reducing health inequities and improving the well-being of Latinx and underserved communities through health communication initiatives. Her work uses qualitatively-driven, mixed methods and community-based participatory research to study social media health misinformation, cancer control and prevention, and disaster relief. She conducts research in English and Spanish.

Rivera’s line of work in cancer control and prevention explores how Latinxs engage with and act upon cancer (mis)information they encounter on social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp). Her research suggests that cultural values and other cultural connectors (e.g., language and country of origin) play a salient role in how message factors and source factors influence engagement with cancer (mis)information among Latinxs, as well as in how they assess the credibility of such (mis)information and choose to act upon it. She developed the social media content and context (SoCo) elicitation method as mixed methods approach to surpass the constraints of assessing engagement with health information by only using social media metrics such as likes, comments, or shares. This approach allows for a better representation of how individuals engage with health (mis)information in reality, and how these interactions influence health behaviors.

Current projects

2024-2026 – Multilingual Health Equity in Large Language Models (LLMs): Enhancing Accuracy and Reliability for Diverse User Interactions (Co-PI)

This research aims to address these challenges to health equity in LLMs across multiple languages, focusing on accuracy and reliability from the perspective of diverse end-users. The specific aims of this proposal include identifying the performance gap of LLMs in answering health questions across languages and assessing the resilience of LLMs to the expected variations and fluctuations in users’ health questions.

2024-2025 – IMPACT-NJ: Improved Policy-based Advancements for Chatbot Technology in New Jersey (Co-PI)

IMPACT-NJ seeks to elevate the standard of chatbot communication within New Jersey’s public sector by learning from states currently leading in such technological integration. We will audit the resources available in other states to identify which aspects can be translated effectively in the context of New Jersey. We aim to identify existing functionalities, gaps, and areas for improvement from an equity and language diversity perspective. We will assess which functionalities work well, which exhibit disparities between English and Spanish, and which require enhancement. Our ultimate goal is to create policy guidelines on how NJ-specific chatbots can provide equitable responses in both languages.

2021-2023 – Contextualizing cancer (mis)information engagement & dissemination among adult Latino social media users (PI)

The research project’s goal is to better understand cancer (mis)information engagement & dissemination among adult Latino social media users.

Team

Rivera's research team comprises highly motivated individuals, including PhD and master's students, dedicated to excelling in their academic pursuits.