Social Network Interventions in Rural Honduras

March 18, 2015 updated by: Thomas Keegan, Ph.D., Harvard University

Diffusion of Health Interventions Across Social Networks in Honduran Villages

This project will examine the spread of health interventions with a randomized control trial design by introducing public health interventions in 32 villages in the Honduran Department of Lempira. Based on identified public health needs in the region, namely improved drinking water and diet, this study will provide training on the use of chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) for water purification and multivitamins for nutritional supplementation. In some villages, individuals selected for their social connectedness will be trained and given coupons that can be redeemed for either chlorine bleach or multivitamins, and these persons will be asked to spread this information and distribute coupons to four people of their choosing. In other villages, individuals selected at random will receive the same training, materials, and instructions. A second wave of coupon distribution will provide coupons to those who received a coupon from the original "seed" groups so that they may disperse these coupons further out in the social networks. Over the following months, study investigators will look at how knowledge of these health practices, and uptake or and adherence to the practices, spreads throughout the villages.

More specifically, the investigators will examine the speed and extent of spreading of these new health practices after introducing them to three different initial "seed" groups: (1) people chosen on the basis of being named as a friend by many people in their village, (2) people chosen based on being named as a friend by a randomly chosen individual, and (3) a group of randomly chosen individuals. It is hypothesized that spread will occur faster and/or to a greater extent when the intervention is started in groups 1 and 2 versus group 3 (control group).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

5773

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

  • United States
    • Connecticut
      • New Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06517
        • Yale University

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

15 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Residents of Targeted Communities, ages 15 and up

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children younger than age 15

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: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Random-Cloro
exposure to water chlorination
Behavioral: exposure to water chlorination
"Seed" individuals in village are given Clorox bleach for water purification, with training on use and general information on water hygiene, along with coupons to distribute to others in village
Other Names:
  • Clorox
Active Comparator: Random-Vitamin
exposure to vitamin use
Behavioral: exposure to vitamin use
"Seed" individuals in village are given daily adult multivitamin, with training on use and general nutrition information, along with coupons to distribute to others in village
Other Names:
  • Medox Forte
Experimental: Indegree-Cloro
high in-degree, exposure to water chlorination
Behavioral: exposure to water chlorination
"Seed" individuals in village are given Clorox bleach for water purification, with training on use and general information on water hygiene, along with coupons to distribute to others in village
Other Names:
  • Clorox
Behavioral: high in-degree
"Seed" individuals for starting intervention are chosen on the basis of high (social network) in-degree
Experimental: Indegree-Vitamin
high in-degree, exposure to vitamin use
Behavioral: exposure to vitamin use
"Seed" individuals in village are given daily adult multivitamin, with training on use and general nutrition information, along with coupons to distribute to others in village
Other Names:
  • Medox Forte
Behavioral: high in-degree
"Seed" individuals for starting intervention are chosen on the basis of high (social network) in-degree
Experimental: Nominated-Cloro
nominated by random, exposure to water chlorination
Behavioral: exposure to water chlorination
"Seed" individuals in village are given Clorox bleach for water purification, with training on use and general information on water hygiene, along with coupons to distribute to others in village
Other Names:
  • Clorox
Behavioral: nominated by random
"Seed" individuals for starting intervention are chosen on the basis of being named as a friend/alter of a randomly selected individual
Experimental: Nominated-Vitamin
nominated by random, exposure to vitamin use
Behavioral: exposure to vitamin use
"Seed" individuals in village are given daily adult multivitamin, with training on use and general nutrition information, along with coupons to distribute to others in village
Other Names:
  • Medox Forte
Behavioral: nominated by random
"Seed" individuals for starting intervention are chosen on the basis of being named as a friend/alter of a randomly selected individual

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Intervention Spread
Time Frame: October 2012
Use of health product among community members will be tracked.
October 2012

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Harvard University

Collaborators

Yale University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Nicholas A Christakis, MD, PhD, Yale University
  • Study Director: Thomas Keegan, PhD, Yale University

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.

General Publications

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, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 20, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 22, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

August 27, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 19, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 18, 2015

Last Verified

March 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Lempira_Phase2

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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