Dime La VerDAD: Verify, Debunk, and Disseminate

NCT ID: NCT06417762

Last Updated: 2025-11-20

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 1400 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-07-02
• Study Completion Date: 2028-04-01

Brief Summary

Dime La VerDAD is an innovative social media capacity-building program that empowers promotores de salud to debunk vaccine misinformation through the use of personal narratives on social media. The core of the implementation strategy consists of augmenting training and self-efficacy for natural community champions, "promotores de salud" from the Hispanic community as trusted messengers to debunk vaccination misinformation. The study will leverage existing community relationships in Chicago and a first of its kind misinformation curriculum to debunk misinformation in communities served by participating promotores de salud. Dime La VerDAD (Verify, Debunk, and Disseminate) is an innovative social media capacity-building program based on theoretical frameworks related to health communication that empowers promotores de salud to debunk vaccine misinformation through the use of personal narratives on social media. This mixed methods study will use a rigorous stepped wedge design to 1) deliver a scalable program of science communicators using an adapted curriculum grounded in infodemiology, 2) evaluate how debunking misinformation is perceived on social media, and 3) discern how use of personal narratives to enhance science communication can lead to changes in opinions and behavior (vaccination rates) about COVID and influenza vaccines among Chicago's predominantly Hispanic communities.

Detailed Description

Social media has accelerated the spread of vaccine misinformation leading to decreased immunization rates and increased preventable deaths in the US and globally. The health impact of misinformation is particularly critical to understand and address when considering the lives of minoritized racial and ethnic groups who are often the target of misinformation campaigns or who may not have easy access to culturally relevant and language-concordant reputable sources. Although access to vaccines remains a significant barrier, vaccine safety confidence is a significant predictor of influenza and COVID vaccination in Hispanic adults. Yet, little is known about how misinformation narratives emerge specifically in relation to Hispanic communities, how they are disseminated, and how they ultimately affect people's decision to get vaccinated.

Social media posts that include personal narratives are more effective at communicating reliable health recommendations, especially those that come from a trusted peer. Therefore, communication strategies that leverage community and interpersonal relationships can prove extremely effective at debunking misinformation about vaccines. Promotores de salud are trusted community members who serve as links between health/social services and a community to improve access to health services and quality of service delivery. Promotores can diffuse and address misinformation in their communities and can be essential to debunk myths, increase trust, and improve health outcomes. Promotores have been at the forefront of addressing disparities in COVID testing and vaccine uptake. Promotores de salud are uniquely positioned as trusted messengers to debunk vaccine misinformation through strategic use of social media and infodemiology principles.

Dime La VerDAD (Verify, Debunk, and Disseminate) is an innovative social media capacity-building program based on theoretical frameworks related to health communication that empowers promotores de salud to debunk vaccine misinformation through the use of personal narratives on social media. To date, there has been no evaluation of whether training promotores de salud to identify and debunk misinformation on social media can improve uptake of accurate scientific information. Dime La VerDAD (Verify, Debunk, and Disseminate) will evaluate how debunking misinformation is perceived on social media, and discern how these can lead to changes in opinions and behavior. The proposed work will use a rigorous stepped wedge design to:

1. Identify and evaluate promotores' use of social media to disseminate vaccine information in the Hispanic community. Investigators will conduct focus groups and key informant interviews with promotores de salud recruited through Illinois Unidos partnerships to verify their peers' information sources about vaccines, vaccine-related misbeliefs, perceptions of vaccine safety, and personal plans to get vaccinated.

2. Engage Promotores de Salud as community champions in an adapted science communication curriculum so they can learn to identify and debunk misinformation. Participants will learn how to make their own infographics to debunk misinformation as well as incorporate their personal narratives into posts. Promotores will also recruit members of their social media circles to participate as subjects to test the effectiveness of their posts.

3. Test effectiveness of personal-narrative posts versus resharing of standardized debunking content shared by promotores de salud to their social networks. Using a stepped-wedge approach, members of promotores' social media circles will be surveyed to measure the reach and effectiveness of various types of social media posts. Investigators hypothesize that community champions will be viewed as trusted messengers within their social circles and that debunking posts with personal narrative using principles from the training program will be disseminated, viewed, and recalled more often as compared to a standard post without personal narrative and lead to increased COVID and influenza vaccination uptake.

This work will test a model of community engagement and empowerment while providing greater knowledge of how credible scientific information can be shared and effect positive changes in opinions and behavior.

Conditions

Misinformation; Influenza; COVID-19; Vaccine Hesitancy; Communication Research; Health Behavior

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: SEQUENTIAL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Control: One year baseline period

Initial baseline period before rollout of the intervention at seven distinct predominantly Hispanic community areas in Chicago.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Experimental: Cohort 1 participation in science communication curriculum

Promotores de salud servicing two geographically adjacent community areas out of the seven selected for participation in this study will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. The core of the implementation strategy consists of augmenting training and self-efficacy for natural community champions, "promotores de salud" from the Hispanic community as trusted messengers to debunk vaccination misinformation.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Science Communication Curriculum Cohort 1

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Promotores will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. Each session will be taught by a bilingual instructor and will be recorded for later consultation and viewing. Sessions will be 2 hours in length and will require an additional 1h of pre-work for each session. Together, each cohort will participate in 18 hours of training as follows: Session 1: What is Misinformation? How do participants identify myths? Session 2: The Power of Storytelling, Present their myth. Session 3: Workshop: Review myths and storyboard for each person with feedback. Session 4: Infographics: Teaching creation of infographics on Canva (free to use).

Session 5: Workshop: Present draft infographic and discuss preliminary social media strategy Session 6: Final Product: Share final infographic and final post / social media strategy

Experimental: Cohort 2 participation in science communication curriculum

Promotores de salud servicing two geographically adjacent community areas out of the seven selected for participation in this study will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. The core of the implementation strategy consists of augmenting training and self-efficacy for natural community champions, "promotores de salud" from the Hispanic community as trusted messengers to debunk vaccination misinformation.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Science communication curriculum Cohort 2

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Promotores will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. Each session will be taught by a bilingual instructor and will be recorded for later consultation and viewing. Sessions will be 2 hours in length and will require an additional 1h of pre-work for each session. Together, each cohort will participate in 18 hours of training as follows: Session 1: What is Misinformation? How do participants identify myths? Session 2: The Power of Storytelling, Present their myth. Session 3: Workshop: Review myths and storyboard for each person with feedback. Session 4: Infographics: Teaching creation of infographics on Canva (free to use).

Session 5: Workshop: Present draft infographic and discuss preliminary social media strategy Session 6: Final Product: Share final infographic and final post / social media strategy

Experimental: Cohort 3 participation in science communication curriculum

Promotores de salud servicing three geographically distinct community areas out of the seven selected for participation in this study will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. The core of the implementation strategy consists of augmenting training and self-efficacy for natural community champions, "promotores de salud" from the Hispanic community as trusted messengers to debunk vaccination misinformation.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Science communication curriculum Cohort 3

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Promotores will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. Each session will be taught by a bilingual instructor and will be recorded for later consultation and viewing. Sessions will be 2 hours in length and will require an additional 1h of pre-work for each session. Together, each cohort will participate in 18 hours of training as follows: Session 1: What is Misinformation? How do participants identify myths? Session 2: The Power of Storytelling, Present their myth. Session 3: Workshop: Review myths and storyboard for each person with feedback. Session 4: Infographics: Teaching creation of infographics on Canva (free to use).

Session 5: Workshop: Present draft infographic and discuss preliminary social media strategy Session 6: Final Product: Share final infographic and final post / social media strategy

Interventions

Science Communication Curriculum Cohort 1

Promotores will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. Each session will be taught by a bilingual instructor and will be recorded for later consultation and viewing. Sessions will be 2 hours in length and will require an additional 1h of pre-work for each session. Together, each cohort will participate in 18 hours of training as follows: Session 1: What is Misinformation? How do participants identify myths? Session 2: The Power of Storytelling, Present their myth. Session 3: Workshop: Review myths and storyboard for each person with feedback. Session 4: Infographics: Teaching creation of infographics on Canva (free to use).

Session 5: Workshop: Present draft infographic and discuss preliminary social media strategy Session 6: Final Product: Share final infographic and final post / social media strategy

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Science communication curriculum Cohort 2

Promotores will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. Each session will be taught by a bilingual instructor and will be recorded for later consultation and viewing. Sessions will be 2 hours in length and will require an additional 1h of pre-work for each session. Together, each cohort will participate in 18 hours of training as follows: Session 1: What is Misinformation? How do participants identify myths? Session 2: The Power of Storytelling, Present their myth. Session 3: Workshop: Review myths and storyboard for each person with feedback. Session 4: Infographics: Teaching creation of infographics on Canva (free to use).

Session 5: Workshop: Present draft infographic and discuss preliminary social media strategy Session 6: Final Product: Share final infographic and final post / social media strategy

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Science communication curriculum Cohort 3

Promotores will receive a tailored curriculum on how to debunk misinformation and create infographics and media as well as incorporate their personal narratives into social media posts for their communities. Each session will be taught by a bilingual instructor and will be recorded for later consultation and viewing. Sessions will be 2 hours in length and will require an additional 1h of pre-work for each session. Together, each cohort will participate in 18 hours of training as follows: Session 1: What is Misinformation? How do participants identify myths? Session 2: The Power of Storytelling, Present their myth. Session 3: Workshop: Review myths and storyboard for each person with feedback. Session 4: Infographics: Teaching creation of infographics on Canva (free to use).

Session 5: Workshop: Present draft infographic and discuss preliminary social media strategy Session 6: Final Product: Share final infographic and final post / social media strategy

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

1. 18 years or older

2. Fluent in English or Spanish

3. Provide services as a community health navigator, service navigator, community health worker, or similar designation in at least one of the community areas (Gage Park, Chicago Lawn, Hermosa, Belmont Cragin, Humboldt Park, Brighton Park, and Eastside) selected as priority areas in the Protect Chicago Plus program institutes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Have a social media presence (personal or work related)

Exclusion Criteria

1. Plan to stop working as a "promotor" or similar designation before spring of 2027 (end of data collection planned)

2. Do not wish to participate in a social media campaign

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 99 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Iowa

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Michigan

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Rush University Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Bedford Research Corporation, Inc.

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Tanoma Consulting

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Chicago

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Marina DelRios, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Chicago - Section of Emergency Medicine

Locations

Rush University

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Site Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

University of Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa, United States

Site Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Site Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Yajaira Bolanos Flores, MPH

Role: CONTACT

yajaira-bolanosflores@uiowa.edu

(319) 353-8785

Facility Contacts

Marina Del Rios, MD

Role: primary

marina.delrios@bsd.uchicago.edu

Other Identifiers

R01MD018730

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

IRB24-1997

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id