Effectiveness of a Mayan Language Social Media Campaign on COVID-19 Vaccine Beliefs in Guatemala

Stanford University5,000 enrolled

Overview

Prior evidence, including formative work supporting the development of this study, suggests there is widespread vaccine hesitancy among Indigenous communities in Guatemala, fueled by mistrust in the health system, lack of official information, and the circulation of myths and misinformation. We will test the effectiveness of a video-based social media campaign that provides a basic overview of the science behind COVID-19 vaccines and addresses prevalent myths and misinformation being shared in target communities. A series of animated videos will be promoted through Facebook Ads and randomized at the individual level across Facebook users throughout the entire country. To investigate the effectiveness of Mayan language content, we are testing three treatment arms - visually identical videos in the 1) Spanish language, 2) K'iche' language, and 3) Kaqchikel language. Our primary outcomes are responses to two attitudinal questions collected via Facebook polling: 1) How safe do you think a COVID-19 vaccine is for people like you? (options: very safe, somewhat safe, barely safe, not safe, don't know); and 2) When you think of most people whose opinion you value, how much would they approve of people getting a COVID-19 vaccine? (options: definitely approve, mostly approve, somewhat approve, not at all approve, don't know). We will measure effects of the three treatment arms across Spanish speakers (including K'iche' and Kaqchikel speakers who also speak Spanish). We will also measure the effectiveness of K'iche vs. Spanish content among K'iche speakers and Kaqchikel vs. Spanish content for Kaqchikel speakers.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

5,000

Conditions

Interventions

COVID-19 vaccine social media campaign exposureOTHER

A series of animated video clips will be promoted through Facebook Ads and randomized at the individual level across Facebook users throughout the entire country. To investigate the effectiveness of Mayan language content, we are testing three treatment arms - visually identical videos in the 1) Spanish, 2) K'iche', and 3) Kaqchikel languages. The videos are visually identical and follow the same audio script, translated into the three focal language. Local voiceover artists were used to record the scripts in the three languages. A control group that is not exposed to any of the social media campaign content will serve as active comparator to allow for comparison of outcomes with treatment arms.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * The intervention will be delivered through the Facebook Ads platform. Intervention content will be promoted to Facebook Users throughout the entire country of Guatemala. K'iche' content will be targeted only in departments where the K'iche' language is primarily spoken. Kaqchikel content will be targeted only in departments where the Kaqchikel language is primarily spoken. Exclusion Criteria: * Only adult Facebook users of age 18 will be included. Users under age 18 are excluded.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Beliefs about COVID-19 vaccine safety

Our primary outcomes are responses to two attitudinal questions collected via Facebook polling. This outcome is response to the question: How safe do you think a COVID-19 vaccine is for people like you? (options: very safe, somewhat safe, barely safe, not safe, don't know).

Time frame: 4 weeks

Beliefs about COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among social network

Our primary outcomes are responses to two attitudinal questions collected via Facebook polling. This outcome is response to the question: When you think of most people whose opinion you value, how much would they approve of people getting a COVID-19 vaccine? (options: definitely approve, mostly approve, somewhat approve, not at all approve, don't know).