Social Media as an Information, Education and Communication Tool for Rabies Prevention: An Interventional Study

NCT ID: NCT05702008

Last Updated: 2023-01-27

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

300 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2022-07-01

Study Completion Date

2022-09-01

Brief Summary

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Background: Rabies is a fatal disease that can be avoided by treating animal bites promptly. Hence, post-exposure prophylaxis is critical. As a result, the National Rabies Control Program was approved under the 12th five-year plan in India. One of its strategies is to engage in Information, Education and Communication activities. Social media provides an opportunity for the quick and easy dissemination of research but is constrained by a lack of peer review and the risk of misinterpretation. The efficacy of a novel social media-based knowledge dissemination strategy for rabies prevention was tested in this study.

Methods: An experimental study design was followed, wherein 144 preclinical medical students of Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi, India were included in each control and test group. The test group was administered the intervention, which exposed the participants to health education material via social media across a span of 30 days. Participants' knowledge, attitude and practices were observed before and after the study duration.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Rabies Health Education Public Health Preventive Health Services

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants

Study Groups

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Control Group

The participants in this study arm were administered no intervention.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Test Group

The participants in this arm were administered the following intervention: The test group was administered the rabies IEC material available on the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) website (https://ncdc.gov.in/index1.php?page=1\&ipp=All\&lang=1\&level=2\&sublinkid=502\&lid=428) in English and Hindi languages using a WhatsApp broadcast every 3 days for 30 days, in a cyclical manner. This material includes brochures, posters, short films, and informative documents designed to educate the general public about rabies prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis practices. Text messages, encouraging the participants to go through the material, were also a part of this intervention.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Rabies Information Education and Communication Material

Intervention Type OTHER

The test group was administered the rabies IEC material available on the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) website (https://ncdc.gov.in/index1.php?page=1\&ipp=All\&lang=1\&level=2\&sublinkid=502\&lid=428) in English and Hindi languages using a WhatsApp broadcast every 3 days for 30 days, in a cyclical manner. This material includes brochures, posters, short films, and informative documents designed to educate the general public about rabies prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis practices. Text messages, encouraging the participants to go through the material, were also a part of this intervention.

Interventions

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Rabies Information Education and Communication Material

The test group was administered the rabies IEC material available on the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) website (https://ncdc.gov.in/index1.php?page=1\&ipp=All\&lang=1\&level=2\&sublinkid=502\&lid=428) in English and Hindi languages using a WhatsApp broadcast every 3 days for 30 days, in a cyclical manner. This material includes brochures, posters, short films, and informative documents designed to educate the general public about rabies prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis practices. Text messages, encouraging the participants to go through the material, were also a part of this intervention.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* adult individuals who have a smartphone, internet access and are WhatsApp users
* preclinical medical students, i.e., Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) 1st and 2nd professional year students

Exclusion Criteria

* individuals who themselves have been a dog bite or rabies victim
* individuals who have a dog bite or rabies victim in the household
* individuals who developed the above criteria during the study duration were excluded from the data analysis
Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Maulana Azad Medical College

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Jay Verma

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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Maulana Azad Medical College

Delhi, , India

Site Status

Countries

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India

References

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Breland JY, Quintiliani LM, Schneider KL, May CN, Pagoto S. Social Media as a Tool to Increase the Impact of Public Health Research. Am J Public Health. 2017 Dec;107(12):1890-1891. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.304098. No abstract available.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 29116846 (View on PubMed)

Aichner T, Grunfelder M, Maurer O, Jegeni D. Twenty-Five Years of Social Media: A Review of Social Media Applications and Definitions from 1994 to 2019. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2021 Apr;24(4):215-222. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2020.0134. Epub 2020 Oct 13.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 33847527 (View on PubMed)

Cinelli M, Quattrociocchi W, Galeazzi A, Valensise CM, Brugnoli E, Schmidt AL, Zola P, Zollo F, Scala A. The COVID-19 social media infodemic. Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 6;10(1):16598. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73510-5.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 33024152 (View on PubMed)

Dijkstra S, Kok G, Ledford JG, Sandalova E, Stevelink R. Possibilities and Pitfalls of Social Media for Translational Medicine. Front Med (Lausanne). 2018 Dec 6;5:345. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2018.00345. eCollection 2018.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 30574495 (View on PubMed)

Gatewood J, Monks SL, Singletary CR, Vidrascu E, Moore JB. Social Media in Public Health: Strategies to Distill, Package, and Disseminate Public Health Research. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2020 Sep/Oct;26(5):489-492. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001096.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 32732723 (View on PubMed)

Greene JA, Choudhry NK, Kilabuk E, Shrank WH. Online social networking by patients with diabetes: a qualitative evaluation of communication with Facebook. J Gen Intern Med. 2011 Mar;26(3):287-92. doi: 10.1007/s11606-010-1526-3. Epub 2010 Oct 13.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 20945113 (View on PubMed)

Rajagopalan MS, Khanna VK, Leiter Y, Stott M, Showalter TN, Dicker AP, Lawrence YR. Patient-oriented cancer information on the internet: a comparison of wikipedia and a professionally maintained database. J Oncol Pract. 2011 Sep;7(5):319-23. doi: 10.1200/JOP.2010.000209. Epub 2011 Aug 4.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 22211130 (View on PubMed)

Eljiz K, Greenfield D, Hogden A, Taylor R, Siddiqui N, Agaliotis M, Milosavljevic M. Improving knowledge translation for increased engagement and impact in healthcare. BMJ Open Qual. 2020 Sep;9(3):e000983. doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-000983.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 32943430 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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F.1/IEC/MAMC/90/02/2022/No.112

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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