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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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.

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

Conditions
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Aging, Covid19

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Information
* Behavioral: Buddy
* Behavioral: Gossip intervention
* Behavioral: Information assigned in community
* Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 55 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Other
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Community receives buddy and gossip treatment, individual informed directly (arm (1))<br>(i) Individual elder given vaccination information. (ii) Individual 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. (iii) 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 and to encourage their communities to use the buddy system to get elders vaccinated. | Behavioral: Information<br>* Elder informed about vaccination.<br>Behavioral: Buddy<br>* 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.<br>Behavioral: Gossip intervention<br>* 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.<br>Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community<br>* Buddy intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|
| Experimental: Community receives buddy and gossip treatment, individual not informed directly (arm (2))<br>Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (1). | Behavioral: Gossip intervention<br>* 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.<br>Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community<br>* Buddy intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|
| Experimental: Community receives gossip treatment, individual informed directly (arm (3))<br>(i) Individual elder given vaccination information. (ii) 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. | Behavioral: Information<br>* Elder informed about vaccination.<br>Behavioral: Gossip intervention<br>* 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.<br>Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|
| Experimental: Community receives gossip treatment, individual not informed directly (arm (4))<br>Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (3). | Behavioral: Gossip intervention<br>* 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.<br>Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|
| Experimental: Community receives buddy treatment, individual informed directly (arm (5))<br>(i) Individual elder given vaccination information. (ii) Individual 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. | Behavioral: Information<br>* Elder informed about vaccination.<br>Behavioral: Buddy<br>* 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.<br>Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community<br>* Buddy intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|
| Experimental: Community receives buddy treatment, individual not informed directly (arm (6))<br>Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (5). | Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community<br>* Buddy intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|
| Experimental: Community receives information, individual informed directly (arm (7))<br>Individual elder given vaccination information. | Behavioral: Information<br>* Elder informed about vaccination.<br>Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|
| Experimental: Community receives information, individual not informed directly (arm (8))<br>Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (7). | Behavioral: Information assigned in community<br>* Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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 | 
| 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 |