Social Media as an Information, Education and Communication Tool for Rabies Prevention: An Interventional Study

January 26, 2023 updated by: Jay Verma, Maulana Azad Medical College

Background: Rabies is a fatal disease that can be avoided by treating animal bites promptly. Hence, post-exposure prophylaxis is critical. As a result, the National Rabies Control Program was approved under the 12th five-year plan in India. One of its strategies is to engage in Information, Education and Communication activities. Social media provides an opportunity for the quick and easy dissemination of research but is constrained by a lack of peer review and the risk of misinterpretation. The efficacy of a novel social media-based knowledge dissemination strategy for rabies prevention was tested in this study.

Methods: An experimental study design was followed, wherein 144 preclinical medical students of Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi, India were included in each control and test group. The test group was administered the intervention, which exposed the participants to health education material via social media across a span of 30 days. Participants' knowledge, attitude and practices were observed before and after the study duration.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

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

  • India
      • Delhi, India, 110002
        • Maulana Azad Medical 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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • adult individuals who have a smartphone, internet access and are WhatsApp users
  • preclinical medical students, i.e., Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) 1st and 2nd professional year students

Exclusion Criteria:

  • individuals who themselves have been a dog bite or rabies victim
  • individuals who have a dog bite or rabies victim in the household
  • individuals who developed the above criteria during the study duration were excluded from the data analysis

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
No Intervention: Control Group
The participants in this study arm were administered no intervention.
Experimental: Test Group
The participants in this arm were administered the following intervention: The test group was administered the rabies IEC material available on the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) website (https://ncdc.gov.in/index1.php?page=1&ipp=All&lang=1&level=2&sublinkid=502&lid=428) in English and Hindi languages using a WhatsApp broadcast every 3 days for 30 days, in a cyclical manner. This material includes brochures, posters, short films, and informative documents designed to educate the general public about rabies prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis practices. Text messages, encouraging the participants to go through the material, were also a part of this intervention.
Other: Rabies Information Education and Communication Material
The test group was administered the rabies IEC material available on the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) website (https://ncdc.gov.in/index1.php?page=1&ipp=All&lang=1&level=2&sublinkid=502&lid=428) in English and Hindi languages using a WhatsApp broadcast every 3 days for 30 days, in a cyclical manner. This material includes brochures, posters, short films, and informative documents designed to educate the general public about rabies prevention and post-exposure prophylaxis practices. Text messages, encouraging the participants to go through the material, were also a part of this intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
To measure the impact of a social media-based dissemination strategy on information dissemination and retention for rabies IEC material among preclinical medical students
Time Frame: 2 months

The responses obtained through a KAP questionnaire were entered into an MS Excel file and analyzed using SPSS version 24. The responses were scored +1 for the correct answer, -1 for the incorrect answer, and 0 for the "Don't know" answer. Aggregated scores were categorized using Bloom's cut-off points for each of the 3 sections (knowledge, attitude, and practices): "good", if the score was between 80 and 100%, "moderate" if the score was between 60 and 79%, and "poor" if the score was less than 60%. Means and percentages of responses were calculated for both test and control groups, before and after the intervention.

The changes in responses for both groups were measured and compared.
2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Maulana Azad Medical 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

Helpful Links

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)

July 1, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 18, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2023

Last Verified

January 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • F.1/IEC/MAMC/90/02/2022/No.112

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

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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