Contagious Misinformation Trial

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Misinformation
• Interventions: Behavioral: Control group audio jingles; Behavioral: Debunking Misinformation through Audio Dramas

• Registration Number: NCT04112680
• Lead Sponsor: Karolinska Institutet

Brief Summary

In the Contagious Misinformation Trial the investigators aim to debunk prevalent misinformation about an infectious disease using two evidence-based methods of debunking. The two debunking methods are packaged in two audio dramas of 4 episodes each, which will be sent to the WhatsApp of participants who are randomised to intervention group 1 or 2. The control group will receive audio messages about a different topic. The primary outcome is the reduction in belief in two misinformation statements about the infectious diseases.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2019-09-27
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-09-30
• Study First Posted: 2019-10-02
• Study Start: 2019-10-07
• Primary Completion: 2019-12-21
• Study Completion: 2019-12-21
• Status Verified: 2020-01
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-01-20
• Last Update Posted: 2020-01-22

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 750

Inclusion Criteria

• Adults
• Living in Freetown
• In possession of a mobile phone that has WhatsApp
• Fluent in Krio

Read More

Exclusion Criteria

• Deafness

Read More

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control group	Control group audio jingles	Audio messages in this control group are on a different topic
Intervention group 1	Debunking Misinformation through Audio Dramas	Audio messages in this group are focussed on providing a Plausible Alternative to the misinformation
Intervention group 2	Debunking Misinformation through Audio Dramas	Audio messages in this group focus on Avoiding the Misinformation and instead only provide the correct information

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in the belief in misinformation	Up to 2 months	The change in the belief in misinformation will be measured through Yes/No questions in the baseline and follow-up surveys. Using logistic regression models, the prevalence of the belief in misinformation about 2 aspects of an infectious disease compared to the control group will be analysed using an intention-to-treat and per-protocol analysis

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Inadvertent promotion of misinformation: the backfire effect	Up to 2 months	To test whether the interventions might inadvertently have promoted the belief in misinformation, the same yes/no questions as the primary outcome will be used in ordinal logistic regression models to analyse if the there has been a backfire effect in the intervention groups, compared to the control group.
As treated analysis of primary outcomes	Up to 2 months	The Yes/No questions of the primary outcomes will be tested in an as-treated analysis. The investigators will only include participants who can correctly recall the basic storylines of the audio messages.
Method of administration	Up to 2 months	To understand if the intervention works outside of WhatsApp, 60 additional people will be recruited who do not have WhatsApp. Participants will instead be called and listen to the audio dramas on the phone; 30 will listen to the audio drama of intervention group 1 and 30 will listen to the audio drama of intervention group 2. The two primary outcomes will be analysed similar to the primary outcome analysis (ITT and per protocol) among the 2 groups and compared to the control group, as well as to their equivalent group of respondents with WhatsApp.
Risk perception & preventive methods	Up to 2 months	Risk perception about the infectious disease will be measured with a question that asks how likely it is that the participants gets the disease in the next year. A question which asks what kind of actions the participants has undertaken, or is planning to undertake, to prevent infection with the disease - will be used to assess if and what kind of actions are taken. Several analyses will be carried out to test whether the intervention influenced risk perception and preventive methods. Furthermore, analyses will be carried out to determine if the a change in risk perception influenced preventive methods.
Objective versus subjective learning	Up to 2 months	In the follow-up survey, there is a question asking if the participant feels like he/she learned from the audio messages (yes/no question). A Chi-Square analysis will be done to determine whether those who feel like they learned also learned objectively, using the two primary outcomes.
Knowledge about preventive methods	Up to 2 months	Using an open question, asking the respondent to name up to 3 preventive methods, a score will be created. For every correct answer, the participants gets a point, and one point is subtracted for every wrong answer; leading to a potential score of -3 to +3. Ordinal logistic regression models will be fitted to compare the scores of the intervention groups with the control group.
Health-related discussions among family/friend	Up to 2 months	The question asking whether the participant has discussed the content of the audio messages will be used for this analysis, together with the question about how often the participant discussed health issues with family/friends. Logistic regression models will be fitted to test whether the interventions have influenced health-related discussions with family or friends, as compared to the control group.
Differences in self-efficacy	Up to 2 months	Participants will answer 3 questions about their perceived self-efficacy on 3 specific preventive behaviours. Answers are on a 5-item scale: from not at all true to exactly true. Ordinal logistic regression models will be specified to test whether the interventions had an influence on people's self-efficacy about three specific preventive behaviours, compared to the control group.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Focus1000; 🇸🇱 Freetown, Western Area, Sierra Leone