A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of the Ottawa Influenza Decision Aid (OIDA)

October 24, 2011 updated by: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of the Ottawa Influenza Decision Aid - A Component of the "Optimizing Healthcare Workers Interpandemic Vaccine Uptake in Acute and Long-term Care" CIHR Project

The purpose of this study is to determine whether, among healthcare personnel who are undecided about whether to receive influenza vaccine, does use of the OIDA increase or decrease their confidence in their decision to be immunized? Furthermore, does the use of the OIDA affect the intent of the healthcare personnel to be immunized or not immunized?

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Influenza is one of the leading causes of acute respiratory infection and results in significant increases in average life-years lost, hospital lengths of stay and outpatient clinic visits, representing an enormous economic burden for many countries. Healthcare personnel are at particularly high risk of exposure to influenza as they are exposed in both the community and in the workplace. Influenza vaccination for healthcare personnel has been shown to reduce patient mortality in long-term care facilities as well as employee absenteeism and financial costs in acute care settings. The Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends that influenza immunization programs strive to immunize at least 90% of eligible recipients. In fact, NACI regards influenza immunization of healthcare personnel with direct patient care responsibilities as an essential component of the standard of care for the protection of patients. They consider the refusal of healthcare personnel without contraindications to receive influenza vaccine as a failure in their duty of care to patients. Despite national recommendations and proven effectiveness, influenza immunization coverage rates among healthcare personnel remain disappointingly low. In Canada, coverage rates among healthcare personnel range from 26-61% while in the US only 38% of healthcare personnel were immunized in 2002.

The decision to accept or refuse influenza vaccine each year may be a difficult one for many healthcare personnel. Decisional conflict, a term used to describe the difficulty experienced by an individual who simultaneously tends to both accept and reject a given course of action, occurs in many medical decisions where the best choice often differs depending on how individuals weigh the risks and benefits, and has been shown to contribute to poor vaccine uptake. In a review of literature from 1985 to 2004, it was found that healthcare personnel experience decisional conflict related to misperceptions about influenza, its risks, the role of healthcare personnel in its transmission to patients, and the importance and risks of vaccination.

Patient decision aids are tools that help people become involved in decision making by providing information about the options and outcomes, and clarifying personal values. They are designed to complement, rather than replace, counselling from a health practitioner. The use of decision aids has been shown to decrease decisional conflict and result in improved knowledge, more realistic expectations of benefit/risks and more active participation of individuals in decision-making. To date, no decision aids have been published that focus on influenza vaccination and none have been developed for healthcare personnel. Furthermore, the effect of a decision aid on the uptake of vaccine in healthcare personnel is unknown.

The peer-reviewed Ottawa Influenza Decision Aid (OIDA) was developed to respond to the aforementioned misconceptions and identify barriers of vaccine uptake in healthcare personnel. The OIDA presents evidence-based information and guides the individual through the decision-making process, including deliberation of personal values and beliefs.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

300

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Ontario
      • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1H 8L6
        • Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
      • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 5C8
        • Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

For the purposes of this trial, the participating healthcare organizations will be required to:

  1. Access a database of all healthcare personnel for whom influenza immunization is recommended
  2. Collect real-time individual level immunization data about when healthcare personnel receive the vaccine
  3. Generate a line-listing of all healthcare personnel for whom immunization status is not yet known at a pre-specified point in the campaign (at the end of the first four weeks of the campaign)
  4. Contact the identified healthcare personnel in a manner approved by the healthcare organization, for example, by mail or e-mail, about participating in the trial
  5. Ideally, have an institutional policy or high-level agreement that requires all healthcare personnel to provide evidence of their immunization status to occupational health.
  6. Agree to work with the project team to boost the response rate, potentially by providing small tokens of appreciation to staff who complete the questionnaire or by promoting the study through regular communication channels (such as their internal network).

Exclusion Criteria:

Any organization not fitting above criteria

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Standard education only
50% of non-immunized personnel 4 weeks following start of campaign will be given standard education materials and tested on their confidence with their immunization decision
50% of non-immunized personnel 4 weeks following start of campaign will be given standard education materials and tested on their confidence with their immunization decision
Active Comparator: Standard Education plus OIDA
50% of non-immunized personnel 4 weeks following start of campaign will be given standard education materials plus the Ottawa Influenza Decision Aid and tested on their confidence with their immunization decision
50% of non-immunized personnel 4 weeks following start of campaign will be given standard education materials and tested on their confidence with their immunization decision

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Level of Confidence in Individual Healthcare Personnel in their Decision to be Immunized or not Against Influenza
Time Frame: 4 weeks after campaign start
The level of confidence with which healthcare personnel reached a decision regarding immunization will be operationalized as a five-point ordinal scale with values ranging between 1 and 5.
4 weeks after campaign start

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Do Healthcare Personnel Decide to be Immunized After Completing the OIDA?
Time Frame: 4 weeks after campaign start
In keeping with the second objective of the trial, which is to measure the individual healthcare worker's decision to become immunized, the corresponding outcome measure is defined as a nominal variable registering the healthcare worker's self-reported course of action, to be used for estimating the rate of influenza immunization in each arm of the trial. In addition, the Occupational Health Department will provide information about the level of overall healthcare personnel immunization during running of the campaign after its first four weeks of operation.
4 weeks after campaign start

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Anne E. McCarthy, MD, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
  • Principal Investigator: Larry W Chambers, PhD(Epi), Bruyère Research Institute

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 21, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 21, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

September 23, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 26, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 24, 2011

Last Verified

October 1, 2011

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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