Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 3, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Nov 3, 2021 - Dec 29, 2021
Date Accepted: Feb 24, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Mar 14, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Evaluation of a social media campaign to increase COVID-19 testing in migrant groups: A cluster randomized trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
A low test positivity rate is key to keeping the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Several migrant groups in Norway have seen higher rates of confirmed COVID-19 and related hospitalizations, while test positivity has remained high in the same groups. Social media sponsored ads have been an important part of the government’s strategy to reach these groups.
Objective:
In this study we aimed to investigate whether such a targeted Facebook campaign increased the rate of testing in certain migrant groups.
Methods:
We randomly assigned 386 Norwegian municipalities and city districts, to intervention or control groups. Individuals born in Syria, Pakistan, Eritrea, Turkey, Russia and Iraq residing in intervention areas were targeted with a social media campaign aiming at increasing the COVID-19 test rate. The campaign message was in simple language and conveyed in the users’ main language or in English.
Results:
During the follow-up period of two weeks, the predicted probability of conducting a COVID-19 test was 4.82 % (CI: 4.47 % - 5.18 %) in the control group, and 5.58 % (CI: 5.20 % - 5.99 %) in the intervention group (P=.004).
Conclusions:
Our targeted social media intervention led to a modest, but potentially important, increase in test rates among migrants in Norway. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT04866589.
Citation
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