Social Media and COVID-19

December 27, 2020 updated by: Jean Liu

Tracking WhatsApp Behaviors During a Crisis: A Longitudinal Observation of Messaging Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this protocol, we seek to examine the role of popular messaging platform WhatsApp in information spread during a crisis. As there have been few global crises in the last decade (coinciding with the rise of social media), the role of private messaging platforms such as WhatsApp during crisis contexts remains understudied. During the current COVID-19 global health crisis, we undertook this study to: (1) characterize the nature of WhatsApp use during crises, (2) characterize the profiles of WhatsApp users (3) understand how WhatsApp usage links to well-being (fear and thoughts about COVID-19).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

151

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

  • Singapore
      • Singapore, Singapore, 138527
        • Yale-NUS College

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

21 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Representative sample of the Singapore population

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • At least 21 years
  • Has stayed in Singapore for at least 2 years
  • Has a WhatsApp account that can be used for the research study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Below 21 years
  • Has stayed in Singapore for less than 2 years
  • Does not have a WhatsApp account that can be used for the research study

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

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Prospective

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Community sample
We plan to recruit a representative sample of the Singapore population.
Behavioral: Social media & news consumption
Daily reports of social media use and consumption, including reports on receiving and disseminating news articles related to the COVID-19 situation (e.g., how many messaging groups shared news on the outbreak, how many items related to the outbreak they forwarded to others, etc).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in fear with regards the COVID-19 situation across 1 week
Time Frame: 1 week, starting from date after baseline survey completion
1 item each day on fear specifically of the COVID-19 situation (measured on a 4 point scale: min = 1, max = 4; higher scores indicating greater fear about the outbreak).
1 week, starting from date after baseline survey completion
WhatsApp usage
Time Frame: 1 week, starting from date after baseline survey completion
Participants were asked a series of questions daily related to their WhatsApp usage behaviors - in particular, their message-forwarding, personal chat and group chat behaviors.
1 week, starting from date after baseline survey completion
Changes in amount of thinking about the COVID-19 situation across 1 week
Time Frame: 1 week, starting from date after initial survey completion
1 item each day on how much they thought about the outbreak that day (measured on a 5 point scale: min = 1, max = 5; higher scores indicating more thinking about the outbreak).
1 week, starting from date after initial survey completion

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Jean Liu

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jean Liu, PhD, Yale-NUS College

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 (Actual)

March 17, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 7, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

May 31, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 17, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 28, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

April 29, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 29, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 27, 2020

Last Verified

December 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2020-CERC-001B

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

IPD Plan Description

Due to stipulations by the Institutional Review Board, data cannot be shared.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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