CClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT04359264DISTANSE COVIDUpdated Jul 7, 2020

Direct Income SupporT and Advice Negating Spread of Epidemic COVID-19: a Randomized Controlled Trial

An interventional study of Cash transfer in COVID-19, sponsored by Unity Health Toronto. Status unknown at 2 sites in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-07-07.

Sponsored by Unity Health Toronto · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jul 2020), so the status shown — last known as Active, not recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
392
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This is a clinical trial of a cash transfer on symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and adherence to physical distancing guidance.

02

Conditions studied

  • COVID-19

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03

In context

COVID-19

7,640 studies on the registry are indexed under COVID-19; 488 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 392 is above the median of 100 across 4,099 interventional studies indexed under COVID-19.

Browse COVID-19 studies →

Lead sponsor

Unity Health Toronto is the lead sponsor of 434 studies on the registry; 76 are open to participants now.

Of its 5 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 1 (20%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • trouble "making ends meet at the end of the month" due to COVID-19 related disruptions

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • confirmed positive for COVID-19 based on laboratory testing
  • current symptoms consistent with COVID-19
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
392 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Cash transfer

    Other: Cash transfer

  • No intervention
    Control

Interventions

  • OtherCash transfer

    Cash transfer of $1000

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Symptoms consisent with COVID-19

    32-item Influenza Patient-reported Outcome (FLU-PRO) symptom score. Higher score is worse.

    Time frame: 14 days

Secondary outcomes

  1. Number of close contacts

    Time frame: Sum of contacts on days 5, 10 and 14

  2. Number of participants with positive test for COVID-19

    Time frame: 14 days

  3. Self-reported health based on the single question: "In general, would you say your health is.."

    Time frame: 14 days

  4. Ability to make ends meet based on the single question: "At the end of the month, are you able to make ends meet?"

    Time frame: 14 days

Other outcomes

  1. Health care utilization

    Time frame: 14 days

  2. Food security

    Three-items (worry about food running out, food did not last, balanced meals)

    Time frame: 14 days

  3. Cost-related medicine non-adherence

    Single item: "During the last two weeks, did you or any member of your household not take a medication, skip some doses, split pills or do anything else to make a medication last longer due to the cost?"

    Time frame: 14 days

07

Study locations

2 sites
  • Municipality of Assiginack Family Health Team
    Assiginack, Ontario P0P 1N0, Canada
  • St Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team
    Toronto, Ontario M5B 1W8, Canada
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Persaud N, Thorpe KE, Bedard M, Hwang SW, Pinto A, Juni P, da Costa BR; DISTANSE COVID-19 (Direct Income SupporT and Advice Negating Spread of Epidemic COVID-19: a randomized controlled trial) study team. Cash transfer during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Fam Med Community Health. 2021 Dec;9(4):e001452. doi: 10.1136/fmch-2021-001452. PubMed 34924360 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 7, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04359264
Lead sponsor
Unity Health Toronto
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 24, 2020
Start date
Apr 20, 2020
Primary completion
May 29, 2020
Completion
Dec 30, 2020 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 7, 2020

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is status unknown, as verified in Jul 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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