An online community peer support intervention to promote COVID-19 vaccine information among essential workers: a randomized trial

Abstract

Introduction Vaccine hesitancy is still rampant in the United States, including health care personnel. Vaccination of frontline essential workers (e.g. health care workers) is very important, especially during a pandemic. We tested the efficacy of a 4-week online, peer-led intervention (Harnessing Online Peer Education) to promote requests for COVID-19 vaccine information among essential workers. Methods Participants ( N = 120) and peer leaders ( N = 12) were recruited through online advertisements from July 23 to August 20, 2021. Eligibility criteria included: 18 years or older, U.S. resident, English speaker, part of phase 1a or 1 b of COVID-19 vaccine rollout (e.g. frontline essential workers), hadn’t received a COVID-19 vaccine but able to receive one. This was a parallel assignment randomised trial. STATA was used to create a randomisation using a random number generator so that all possible assignments of participants and peer leaders to groups were equally likely. Participants were randomly assigned to intervention or control arms that consisted of two private, hidden Facebook groups, each with 30 participants. Peer leaders were randomly assigned to an intervention group, each with six peer leaders. Participants in the intervention arm were randomly assigned to three peer leaders. Participants were blinded after assignment. Peer leaders were tasked with reaching out to their assigned participants at least three times each week. Participants completed a baseline and a post intervention survey. The study is registered on ClinicalTrials.org under identifier NCT04376515 and is no longer recruiting. This work was supported by the NIAID under grant 5R01AI132030-05. Results A total of 101 participants analysed (50 intervention and 51 control). Six people in the intervention group and 0 people in the control group requested vaccine information. Ten people in the intervention group and six people in the control group provided proof of vaccination. The odds of requesting vaccine information in the intervention group was 13 times that in the control group (95% confidence interval: (1.5, 1772), p -value = 0.015). Thirty-seven participants in the intervention group and 31 in the control group were engaged at some point during the study. Conclusions Results suggest peer-led online community groups may help to disseminate health information, aid public health efforts, and combat vaccine hesitancy. Key Messages The odds of requesting vaccine information was 13 times in the intervention group. Peer-led online communities may help to disseminate information and aid public health efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy.

Feasibility and Acceptability of Online Recruitment and an Online Brief Mindfulness Intervention Among Patients With Sickle Cell Disease

“…Sustained improvement following Mini MORE involvement is likely to result from sustained mindfulness practice. Future studies may wish to encourage sustained mindfulness practice with a community support group model, such as those used in the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) intervention [22,[24][25].…”

“…Researchers have utilized online recruitment for more than 15 years for various studies, especially among communities of color [22][23]. For example, Facebook, Instagram, Craigslist, and Reddit, have all been successfully and extensively used to recruit Black/African American and Latinx participants to studies [24][25][26][27]. These methods might be similarly applied to recruit and enroll PWSCD.…”

Effects of an Online Community Peer-support Intervention on COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Among Essential Workers: Mixed-methods Analysis

“…For data about the full intervention, please see our paper about the full study. 12 During the study, there were more posts and comments in the control arm (315 vs 160 in intervention; P <0.001) ( Table 2 ). Most posts and comments were about COVID-19 in both the intervention and control arms (50.63% and 54.29%, respectively) ( Table 2 ).…”

“…[6][7][8] Even those in the healthcare field have been affected by this problem, 7,9 but it is important that healthcare workers set an example for the public on scientifically proven options for reducing the spread of COVID-19. 10 conditions, [11][12][13] and this intervention may be applied reduce misinformation and promote vaccination. The HOPE tool uses trained peer leaders to help provide support to others online.…”

“…The HOPE tool uses trained peer leaders to help provide support to others online. [11][12][13] To better understand the growing problems around misinformation and vaccine hesitancy, we used data from a HOPE pilot randomized controlled trial designed to increase requests for COVID-19 vaccine information among frontline essential workers. In this study we sought to explore the topics discussed on the online community related to COVID-19 and assess differences in conversation topics and frequency between study arms.…”