Identifying Risks of COVID-19 Outbreaks in Work Settings and the Implications for Control Measures

Identifying Risks of Outbreaks in Work Settings and the Implications for Control Measures

Objectives: To identify core and cross-time workplace hazards and worker's exposure prevention profile towards outbreaks in three non-healthcare work settings; to evaluate effectiveness of a theory-based educational programme on improving attitude to vaccination and virus testing in workplace; to longitudinally compare attitude of willingness to vaccination, testing of SARS-CoV-2 and changes of risk profile toward outbreaks among workers.

Design: A 5-year study comprising a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and 3 parallel longitudinal studies with baseline and follow-up repeated measurements.

Setting: Non-office, mobile and office work settings. Participants: Part I is a RCT, 294 workers will be randomised to an intervention group (a theory-based education programme) and a control group with measurements repeated at 3rd, 6th and 9th month. Part II is a longitudinal quantitative study (i.e., prospective cohort study) involving 1,495 workers recruited at the baseline and followed up for 2 years. Part III is a longitudinal qualitative study involving 26 management and frontline workers. Part IV is a longitudinal workplace hygiene study involving 6 workplaces enrolled at the baseline and followed up to conduct ventilation investigation.

Intervention: Theory-based education intervention to build positive attitude of control measures towards SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.

Main outcome measure: Workplace hygiene data (airflow, air volume, etc.); willingness to vaccination and virus tests; actual uptake of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing.

Data analyses: Multivariate regression logistic model and thematically analysed will be performed for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Intention-to-treat analysis will be employed for RCT.

Expected results: Large dataset of longitudinal measurement of willingness to vaccination/testing and actual uptake will be documented to inform policy. Educational intervention will be developed to mitigate risks of outbreaks in workplace.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Intention to Get SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination; Intention to Get SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Theory of planned behaviours (TPB) based intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 310
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Feng Wang; Phone Number: +85222528811; Email: fwang@cuhk.edu.hk

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • New Territories
    • Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong, 00000
      • The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• currently being employed in Hong Kong

Exclusion Criteria:

• who have history of physician-diagnosed cancer and sever chronic diseases

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group; This arm will receive TPB intervention to build positive attitudes towards COVID-19 related preventive behaviour (e.g., good compliance with infection control measures, encouraging uptake of testing and vaccination), subjective norms (tackling strategies for perceived social pressure from others or normative beliefs), and improve perceived behavioural control towards risks of outbreaks in workplace.	Behavioral: Theory of planned behaviours (TPB) based intervention; Intervention group will receive TPB-based education program to improve workers' attitude toward SARS-CoV-2 and raise their intention to vaccination and virus testing. The intervention will be implemented at the baseline with measurements repeated at the 3rd month, 6th month and 9th month. The standardized mode of intervention includes face-to-face/online seminar (depends on the COVID-19 situation), message via mobile phone, promotion pamphlet, etc.
No Intervention: Control group; Control group will receive only general health information.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change of intention to get vaccination of SARS-CoV-2	A questionnaire will be used to evaluate the intention to get vaccination quantitively. This assessment will be repeated in the 3rd, 6th and 9th month. Change will be assessed among these time points.	3rd, 6th and 9th month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change of intention to uptake SARS-CoV-2 antibody test	A questionnaire will be used to evaluate the intention to get rapid antibody test quantitively. This assessment will be repeated in the 3rd, 6th and 9th month. Change will be assessed among these time points.	3rd, 6th and 9th month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Lap Ah Tse, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 15, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 30, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): May 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 30, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 14, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): January 19, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 7, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 6, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; vaccination; attitude; antibody testing; willingness; workplace hazards; exposure prevention; control measures
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2021.531-T

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No