COVID-19 Messaging for Vaccination
Increasing the Effectiveness and Diffusion of COVID-19 Messaging for Vaccination
1 other identifier
interventional
6
1 country
1
Brief Summary
This study will distribute videos of health professionals encouraging Covid-19 vaccination to a large sample of Facebook users, and will test the most effective ways to maximize diffusion of this vaccine-related content to increase vaccination rates. The study sample will be U.S. states where vaccination rates remained low in fall 2021. The experimental design is an RCT with 4 groups, randomized at the county level: 1) a control group which receives no intervention, 2) a treatment group in which Facebook users receive ads which include videos of health professionals telling them to get vaccinated, 3) a treatment group in which Facebook users receive ads which include videos of health professionals encouraging them to help their friends to get vaccinated, and 4) a treatment group in which Facebook users receive ads which include videos of health professionals encouraging them to get their most influential friends to help their friends get vaccinated. In treatments 3 and 4, participants will have the option to sign up to be a "vaccine ambassador," in which case they will get notifications when the study team posts new vaccine-related content, and will receive reminders about encouraging their friends to be vaccinated. The vaccine ambassadors will also be entered into a lottery to win prizes. The study team is building a website to host the videos of health professionals which answer common questions about Covid-19 vaccination. The investigators will measure engagement with the vaccine-related content as well as assess effects on vaccination rates at the county level.
Trial Health
Trial Health Score
Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach
participants targeted
Target at below P25 for not_applicable
Started Dec 2021
Shorter than P25 for not_applicable
1 active site
Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.
Trial Relationships
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Study Timeline
Key milestones and dates
First Submitted
Initial submission to the registry
October 21, 2021
CompletedStudy Start
First participant enrolled
December 22, 2021
CompletedFirst Posted
Study publicly available on registry
January 10, 2022
CompletedPrimary Completion
Last participant's last visit for primary outcome
January 27, 2022
CompletedStudy Completion
Last participant's last visit for all outcomes
January 27, 2022
CompletedResults Posted
Study results publicly available
August 25, 2023
CompletedAugust 25, 2023
August 1, 2023
1 month
October 21, 2021
March 17, 2023
August 23, 2023
Conditions
Keywords
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcomes (1)
Changes in County-Level Covid-19 Vaccination Measured by Inverse Hyperbolic Sine
County-level Covid-19 vaccination rates were analysed using publicly available data. The number of new vaccinations in each county was transformed using the inverse hyperbolic sine because the underlying vaccination count data were right-skewed and included zeros. Larger numbers are considered better in the context of the study (more people vaccinated).
During intervention (6 weeks) and after intervention (3 weeks)
Study Arms (4)
Control
NO INTERVENTIONNo intervention in this arm; the study team will examine publicly available county- and zip code-level outcomes in this group.
Treatment 1: Direct
EXPERIMENTALFacebook users in the area receive ads which include videos of health professionals telling them to get vaccinated. The health professionals answer common questions about Covid-19 vaccines (e.g. are they safe / are they free).
Treatment 2: Friends
EXPERIMENTALFacebook users in the area receive ads which include videos of health professionals encouraging them to help their friends to get vaccinated. There is also a link in the ad to a website build by the study team. This website hosts videos which answer common questions about vaccination (the same videos which are directly served to Facebook users in Treatment 1).
Treatment 3: Gossips
EXPERIMENTALFacebook users in the area receive ads which include videos of health professionals encouraging them to nominate their most influential friends to help their friends get vaccinated. The difference from Treatment 2 is that the health professionals call on Facebook users to get their most influential friends to do the convincing about the vaccine. There is also a link in the ad to a website built by the study team. This website hosts videos which answer common questions about vaccination (the same videos that are directly served to Facebook users in Treatment 1).
Interventions
Receive ads on Facebook or through our website with videos in which health professionals tell people to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The health professionals answer common questions about the Covid-19 vaccine, such as how mRNA vaccines work, and what types of side effects to expect.
Receive ads on Facebook with videos in which health professionals tell people to encourage their unvaccinated friends to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Receive ads on Facebook with videos in which health professionals tell people to get their most influential friends to encourage their unvaccinated friends to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Adults in participating geographic areas can sign up to be a "vaccine ambassador" on a website that the study team has built. The study team will send updates to vaccine ambassadors when new content has been posted to the website (e.g. a new video) and/or to remind the vaccine ambassadors to encourage their friends to get vaccinated. The study team will incentivize vaccine ambassadors by entering participating ambassadors into a lottery for a prize.
The same videos will be displayed using two different frames: a "myth" frame and a "fact" frame. Visitors to the vaccine content website will randomly receive one framing of each video.
The order in which videos appear on the vaccine content website will be randomized.
Eligibility Criteria
You may qualify if:
- Facebook user
- Over 18 years old
- In a geographic area targeted by the study
Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.
Sponsors & Collaborators
- Massachusetts Institute of Technologylead
- Facebook, Inc.collaborator
- Code3collaborator
- Stanford Universitycollaborator
- Harvard Universitycollaborator
- Yale Universitycollaborator
- Johns Hopkins Universitycollaborator
- Massachusetts General Hospitalcollaborator
- Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munichcollaborator
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)collaborator
Study Sites (1)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139, United States
MeSH Terms
Conditions
Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)
Results Point of Contact
- Title
- LISA HO
- Organization
- MIT
Study Officials
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Esther Duflo, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Ben Olken, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Abhijit Banerjee, PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Marcella Alsan, MD, PhD
Harvard Kennedy School
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Arun Chandrasekhar, PhD
Stanford University
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Emily Breza, PhD
Harvard University
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, PhD
Yale University
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Emily Hoppe, PhD Student
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Pierre-Luc Vautrey, PhD Student
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Lisa Ho, PhD Student
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, MD
MGH/McLean Harvard Psychiatry Program
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Erica Warner, ScD, MPH
Harvard Medical School & Massachusetts General Hospital
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Carlos Torres, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Fatima Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA
Harvard Medical School & Massachusetts General Hospital
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Sarah Eichmeyer, PhD
Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munich
Publication Agreements
- PI is Sponsor Employee
- No
- Restrictive Agreement
- No
Study Design
- Study Type
- interventional
- Phase
- not applicable
- Allocation
- RANDOMIZED
- Masking
- NONE
- Purpose
- TREATMENT
- Intervention Model
- PARALLEL
- Sponsor Type
- OTHER
- Responsible Party
- SPONSOR
Study Record Dates
First Submitted
October 21, 2021
First Posted
January 10, 2022
Study Start
December 22, 2021
Primary Completion
January 27, 2022
Study Completion
January 27, 2022
Last Updated
August 25, 2023
Results First Posted
August 25, 2023
Record last verified: 2023-08
Data Sharing
- IPD Sharing
- Will not share
The investigators do not plan to share any individual participant data. The only individual participant data that the study will collect will be contact information through the "vaccine ambassador" program. "Vaccine ambassadors" are adults living in geographic areas assigned to Treatment 2 or Treatment 3 who have signed up on the study website to receive updates and reminders about vaccination-related content. However, the study team does not plan on collecting any information about the behavior of vaccine ambassadors, and so do not plan to share any of their data (which will just consisting of contact information) with other researchers.