Boosting COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake Using Wastewater Surveillance

September 12, 2025 updated by: Syracuse University

Boosting COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake Using Wastewater Surveillance: A County-Randomized Controlled Trial

Vaccinations are among the most successful and critical public health interventions. Despite the enormous protection that vaccines provide to public health, both delays and refusals of vaccines (vaccine hesitancy) are on the rise. Given that low vaccination rates present both an individual and community risk, it is critical that measures are taken to increase vaccination uptake in both rural and urban counties in New York. Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to be a leading indicator of pending surges. This study will examine whether a communications campaign based upon SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance data can increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Forty counties have been selected for the communication campaign (20 in the treatment group and 20 in the control group). A difference-in-differences method will be applied to assess the impact of the communications campaign on vaccine uptake, which observes the outcomes between a control and treatment group over pre- and post-intervention time periods. The communications campaign will be evaluated using the change in vaccination status of residents of the treatment and control counties. Outcomes will also be compared between demographic groups including race and ethnicity because of differences in vaccination rates that have been already observed.

We hypothesize that information regarding COVID-19 provided by wastewater surveillance that is geographically based and more local to communities will increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. This theory of local information having an impact on health behavior is a novel application of the health belief model to increase vaccine uptake.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

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
    • New York
      • Syracuse, New York, United States, 13057
        • Syracuse 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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Counties in New York State

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Counties outside of New York State

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Experimental: Communications Intervention Group
Behavioral: Communication Campaign
A social media vaccine communications campaign is deployed once increasing amounts of SARS-CoV-2 RNA are identified in the New York State wastewater surveillance network. The social media campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and NextDoor social media platforms will run for 11 weeks. The campaign disseminates information about the wastewater surveillance network and vaccination (not COVID-19 specific) to residents in intervention counties. These social media platforms not only allow for quick and cost-effective exposure, but also allow for participation and interaction with participants. The campaign ads include a call-to-action link to the New York State wastewater surveillance network webpage which has information and links regarding vaccines for respiratory transmitted pathogens (COVID-19, influenza, and RSV) and how to schedule an appointment.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake
Time Frame: 11 weeks
The change in vaccination coverage among residents of the counties in the study will be measured as the percent of the population that received a vaccine dose.
11 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Syracuse University

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)

September 13, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 24, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

July 10, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 8, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 19, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

November 21, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 15, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 12, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23-327

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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