What Works to Get the Elderly Vaccinated Against COVID-19? Experimental Evidence From India

Covid19 Clinical Trial

Official title:

What Works to Get the Elderly Vaccinated Against COVID-19? Experimental Evidence From India

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04870593
• Other study ID #: 1702861995A021
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 17, 2021
• Est. completion date: September 30, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: March 2023
• Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

COVID-19 poses a substantial risk to elderly populations; understanding how to get elders vaccinated against the virus is therefore a policy priority. An experiment with elders in Tamil Nadu, India will be used to evaluate interventions policymakers might use to raise vaccination rates amongst the elderly. The particular interventions being tested are: calling elders to inform them about vaccination; encouragement of a "buddy system," whereby elders are accompanied to the vaccination site by another adult who could also get the vaccine; and seeding vaccination information with "gossips," individuals who elders identify as being good at spreading information in the elders' communities. The interventions are phone-based, and can be implemented quickly and at low cost. This makes them promising strategies the Tamil Nadu government and other governments could use to vaccinate elderly populations against COVID-19.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 3006
• Est. completion date: September 30, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: September 30, 2022
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 55 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• At least 55 years of age

• Has phone number

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not part of the experiments registered under protocol IDs 223749 or 172020

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Aging
• COVID-19
• Covid19

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Information
Elder informed about vaccination.
• Buddy
Elder encouraged to get vaccinated using "buddy system," whereby he/she is accompanied to the vaccination site by another adult who could also get the vaccine. A potential buddy also given vaccination information and encouraged to help the elder get to the vaccination site so they could both be vaccinated.
• Gossip intervention
Members of elder's community asked who in the community is good at spreading information. These "gossips" then asked to spread information about vaccination of elders. If buddy intervention assigned in community, gossips also asked to encourage their communities to use the buddy system to get elders vaccinated.
• Information assigned in community
Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.
• Buddy assigned in community
Buddy intervention assigned for other elders in community.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
India	JPAL SA at IFMR	Chennai	Tamil Nadu

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

Country where clinical trial is conducted

India, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Received at least one shot	Elders asked on phone call if they have received zero, one, or two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Outcome takes the value of 1 if they received at least one shot, and 0 otherwise.	8 weeks after intervention
Primary	Received two shots	Elders asked on phone call if they have received zero, one, or two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Outcome takes the value of 1 if they received two shots, and 0 otherwise.	8 weeks after intervention