Effectiveness of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for COVID-19 Vaccination Training of Frontline Health Workers: Experimental Evidence From the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background:

As COVID-19 continues to pose a significant threat worldwide, training health workers to administer the COVID-19 vaccine and encourage uptake of the vaccine is essential to limiting the number of deaths and ultimately ending the pandemic. Providing adequate training to health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) had already been logistically and economically challenging, but the onset of the pandemic has intensified the challenge of providing critical and rapidly evolving health information to health workers at a time when it is needed most, particularly in low bandwidth areas where access to accurate sources of information are limited.

A growing body of research suggests that effective and efficient training can be provided through mobile health (mHealth) solutions. The rapid expansion of mobile phone technology available throughout LMICs has enabled the scaling of health education delivery via mobile phone. However, while app-based learning has grown in popularity, drawbacks include limited access to smartphones and the data costs to access the internet, if available. Interactive voice response (IVR) systems pose an alternative solution by employing pre-recorded audio files in local languages, allowing users to receive information from mobile phones without the need for internet access.

Aims:

In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of an IVR training intervention for improving knowledge of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine administration among health workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We will also examine differences in effectiveness across subgroups including by geographic region, professional roles (e.g., nurses, physicians) and type of health worker facility.