Social media campaign to increase COVID-19 testing in migrant groups

ISRCTN ISRCTN15162325
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN15162325
Submission date
14/06/2021
Registration date
15/06/2021
Last edited
05/10/2022
Recruitment status
No longer recruiting
Overall study status
Completed
Condition category
Infections and Infestations
Prospectively registered
Protocol
Statistical analysis plan
Results
Individual participant data

Plain English summary of protocol

Background and study aims:
Norwegian health authorities are using social media campaigns in the effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19, e.g. to encourage adherence to infection control measures, COVID-19 testing etc. A particular target group for such campaigns are migrants. The study's aim is to evaluate the effect of the social media campaign on the rate of migrants testing for Covid-19.

Who can participate?
The trial includes all persons with a Norwegian national identity number, registered as a resident of a Norwegian municipality or city district (in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim), of age 18 or older and registered as born in either Eritrea, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Somalia, Syria or Turkey.

What does the study involve?
Being exposed to the social media campaign.

What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Being exposed to the campaign may lead to more testing, which in turn may reveal COVID-19 infections that would otherwise not have been detected.

Where is the study run from?
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health

When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
June 2021 for 1 month

Who is funding the study?
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Who is the main contact?
Ingeborg Hess Elgersma, IngeborgHess.Elgersma@fhi.no

Contact information

Miss Ingebord Hess Elgersma
Scientific

Norwegian Institute of Public Health
PO Box 222 Skøyen
Oslo
0213
Norway

ORCiD logoORCID ID 0000-0002-3402-4049
Phone +47 91649828
Email atle.fretheim@fhi.no

Study information

Study designInterventional cluster randomized trial
Primary study designInterventional
Secondary study designCluster randomised trial
Study setting(s)Internet/virtual
Study typeScreening
Participant information sheet No participant information sheet available
Scientific titleEvaluation of social media campaign to increase COVID-19 testing in migrant groups: A cluster randomised trial
Study objectivesA social media campaign can increase the rate of testing for COVID-19 among migrants.
Ethics approval(s)Not required. The study does not qualify as health research, but as a quality improvement study, since health outcomes are not measured and the intervention is similar to interventions that are being routinely implemented by the government.
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studiedTesting for COVID-19
InterventionThose belonging to the intervention group will be targeted, to the extent possible, with the social media campaign, which entails a message encouraging everyone to get tested for COVID-19. The campaign will run over 2 weeks.
Those belonging to the control group will not receive any intervention related to the study.

The randomisation is done at the municipality level, by means of a web-based randomisation tool.
Intervention typeBehavioural
Primary outcome measureNumber of COVID-19 tests conducted during the study period, as registered in the national registry for infection control (MSIS)
Secondary outcome measuresData from Facebook will be used to describe the reach of the campaign, e.g. the number of views, the number of clicks, the number of times the content was shared
Overall study start date01/06/2021
Completion date22/06/2021

Eligibility

Participant type(s)Healthy volunteer
Age groupAdult
SexBoth
Target number of participants234,112
Total final enrolment233903
Key inclusion criteria1. Norwegian national identity number, registered as resident of a Norwegian municipality or city district (in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim)
2. Registered as born in either Eritrea, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Somalia, Syria or Turkey
Key exclusion criteriaDoes not meet inclusion criteria
Date of first enrolment01/06/2021
Date of final enrolment14/06/2021

Locations

Countries of recruitment

  • Norway

Study participating centre

Norwegian Institute of Public Health
PO Box 222 Skøyen
Oslo
0213
Norway

Sponsor information

Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Government

PO Box 222 Skøyen
Oslo
0213
Norway

Phone +47 91584782
Email atle.fretheim@fhi.no
Website http://www.fhi.no/
ROR logo "ROR" https://ror.org/046nvst19

Funders

Funder type

Government

Norwegian Institute of Public Health

No information available

Helsedirektoratet
Government organisation / National government
Alternative name(s)
Norwegian Directorate of Health
Location
Norway

Results and Publications

Intention to publish date01/11/2021
Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to shareNo
IPD sharing plan summaryNot expected to be made available
Publication and dissemination planPlanned publication in peer-reviewed journal.
IPD sharing planThe datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not expected to be made available due to legal (ethical and data privacy) reasons. However, we will attempt to prepare a synthetic version of the dataset if we receive requests from researchers who wish to replicate our analyses. The data code for our analyses will be made readily available for anyone who requests them.

Study outputs

Output type Details Date created Date added Peer reviewed? Patient-facing?
Results article 24/03/2022 25/04/2022 Yes No
Protocol file version 1 14/06/2021 05/10/2022 No No

Additional files

40020 Protocol v1 14Jun2021.pdf

Editorial Notes

05/10/2022: Uploaded protocol (not peer-reviewed) as an additional file.
25/04/2022: The following changes have been made:
1. Publication reference added.
2. The final enrolment number has been added from the reference.
15/06/2021: Trial's existence confirmed by Norwegian Directorate of Health.