A Tool Kit to Improve Vaccine Confidence in the Philippines

Summary

This cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an educational toolkit in enhancing measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and polio vaccine confidence in the Philippines. The toolkit contains four aspects: an introduction to MMR and polio vaccines, vaccine safety and efficacy, vaccination guidelines (including schedules and locations), and debunking myths and misconceptions. Presented as a 10-minute video and followed by reminder messages from health educators, the toolkit was developed in collaboration with International Care Ministries (ICM) health educators and translated into local dialects.

Our toolkit will be embedded in a RCT called the Soap Opera Trial, which is designed and run by the ICM leveraging their community-based Transform Program. The standard Transform Program consists of 15 weeks of education sessions delivered by local health educators through traditional lectures in each community. The trial aims to evaluate the impact of a variation to their standard Transform Program, which uses aspirational videos to deliver education about food security, livelihood, and health. The soap opera to be shown in the video includes drama and plot twists similar to a typical television show but highlights lessons about income creation, health care, and resilience, which are key behaviors and outcomes that can help the poor lift themselves out of poverty. The ICM will conduct this RCT to assess the impact of these soap opera videos on outcomes such as aspirations about the future. A total of 180 communities participating in the Transform program will be randomly assigned to one of the two arms. In the intervention arm, the participants will receive our vaccine toolkit intervention (including educational video and reminding messages about MMR and polio vaccines) and 15 soap opera videos alongside standard Transform Program, while participants in the control arm will receive the standard Transform Program, in which the education sessions are delivered through lectures.

The effectiveness of the toolkit will be evaluated by 1) the rate of MMR and polio vaccination among children of the Transform Program participants and 2) knowledge and attitudes towards these vaccines among the participants. Additionally, the relevance, applicability, and feasibility of the toolkit will be assessed using qualitative research methods, and cost-effectiveness of the intervention will be assessed.

Conditions

• Measles
• Polio
• Vaccination Hesitancy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Educational toolkit on MMR and polio vaccination

The educational video about vaccines was adapted from a health educational toolkit that aims to promote community confidence in vaccines in the ultra-poor Philippine households. This toolkit contains persuasive messaging on vaccination guidelines, vaccines safety and efficacy, and myths and misconceptions of MMR and polio vaccines. Participants in the intervention arm will receive our educational video about MMR and polio vaccines. Additionally, health educators from ICM will teach the participants to understand their vaccination cards and orally remind them to have their children vaccinated at each week's Transform Program session from week 12 until week 15. After the end of the Transform Program, about 40-50% of the participants in the intervention arm will attend another community-based program run by ICM called the Savings Groups, where the participants will receive weekly reminding messages about MMR and polio vaccination in their group meetings for three months.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• International Care Ministries, the Philippines

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Toronto

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Xiaolin Wei, PhD · University of Toronto

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-01-31

Primary Completion

2025-06-30

Completion

2025-06-30

Countries

• Philippines

Study Locations