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CompletedNCT04870593Updated Mar 29, 2023

What Works to Get the Elderly Vaccinated Against COVID-19? Experimental Evidence From India

An interventional study of Information and Buddy in Aging and Covid19, sponsored by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.. Completed at 1 site in India. Open to participants aged 55 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-03-29.

Sponsored by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
3,006
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
55 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

COVID-19 poses a substantial risk to elderly populations; understanding how to get elders vaccinated against the virus is therefore a policy priority. An experiment with elders in Tamil Nadu, India will be used to evaluate interventions policymakers might use to raise vaccination rates amongst the elderly. The particular interventions being tested are: calling elders to inform them about vaccination; encouragement of a "buddy system," whereby elders are accompanied to the vaccination site by another adult who could also get the vaccine; and seeding vaccination information with "gossips," individuals who elders identify as being good at spreading information in the elders' communities. The interventions are phone-based, and can be implemented quickly and at low cost. This makes them promising strategies the Tamil Nadu government and other governments could use to vaccinate elderly populations against COVID-19.

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Conditions studied

  • Aging
  • Covid19

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03

In context

COVID-19

7,638 studies on the registry are indexed under COVID-19; 488 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 3,006 is above the median of 100 across 4,098 interventional studies indexed under COVID-19.

Browse COVID-19 studies →

Lead sponsor

National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. is the lead sponsor of 22 studies on the registry; 2 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
55 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • At least 55 years of age
  • Has phone number

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not part of the experiments registered under protocol IDs 223749 or 172020
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
3,006 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Community receives buddy and gossip treatment, individual informed directly (arm (1))

    (i) Individual elder given vaccination information. (ii) Individual elder encouraged to get vaccinated using "buddy system," whereby he/she is accompanied to the vaccination site by another adult who could also get the vaccine. A potential buddy also given vaccination information and encouraged to help the elder get to the vaccination site so they could both be vaccinated. (iii) Members of elder's community asked who in the community is good at spreading information. These "gossips" then asked to spread information about vaccination of elders and to encourage their communities to use the buddy system to get elders vaccinated.

    Behavioral: Information · Behavioral: Buddy · Behavioral: Gossip intervention · Behavioral: Information assigned in community · Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community

  • Experimental
    Community receives buddy and gossip treatment, individual not informed directly (arm (2))

    Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (1).

    Behavioral: Gossip intervention · Behavioral: Information assigned in community · Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community

  • Experimental
    Community receives gossip treatment, individual informed directly (arm (3))

    (i) Individual elder given vaccination information. (ii) Members of elder's community asked who in the community is good at spreading information. These "gossips" then asked to spread information about vaccination of elders.

    Behavioral: Information · Behavioral: Gossip intervention · Behavioral: Information assigned in community

  • Experimental
    Community receives gossip treatment, individual not informed directly (arm (4))

    Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (3).

    Behavioral: Gossip intervention · Behavioral: Information assigned in community

  • Experimental
    Community receives buddy treatment, individual informed directly (arm (5))

    (i) Individual elder given vaccination information. (ii) Individual elder encouraged to get vaccinated using "buddy system," whereby he/she is accompanied to the vaccination site by another adult who could also get the vaccine. A potential buddy also given vaccination information and encouraged to help the elder get to the vaccination site so they could both be vaccinated.

    Behavioral: Information · Behavioral: Buddy · Behavioral: Information assigned in community · Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community

  • Experimental
    Community receives buddy treatment, individual not informed directly (arm (6))

    Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (5).

    Behavioral: Information assigned in community · Behavioral: Buddy assigned in community

  • Experimental
    Community receives information, individual informed directly (arm (7))

    Individual elder given vaccination information.

    Behavioral: Information · Behavioral: Information assigned in community

  • Experimental
    Community receives information, individual not informed directly (arm (8))

    Individual elder lives in community with elders in arm (7).

    Behavioral: Information assigned in community

Interventions

  • BehavioralInformation

    Elder informed about vaccination.

  • BehavioralBuddy

    Elder encouraged to get vaccinated using "buddy system," whereby he/she is accompanied to the vaccination site by another adult who could also get the vaccine. A potential buddy also given vaccination information and encouraged to help the elder get to the vaccination site so they could both be vaccinated.

  • BehavioralGossip intervention

    Members of elder's community asked who in the community is good at spreading information. These "gossips" then asked to spread information about vaccination of elders. If buddy intervention assigned in community, gossips also asked to encourage their communities to use the buddy system to get elders vaccinated.

  • BehavioralInformation assigned in community

    Information intervention assigned for other elders in community.

  • BehavioralBuddy assigned in community

    Buddy intervention assigned for other elders in community.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Received at least one shot

    Elders asked on phone call if they have received zero, one, or two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Outcome takes the value of 1 if they received at least one shot, and 0 otherwise.

    Time frame: 8 weeks after intervention

  2. Received two shots

    Elders asked on phone call if they have received zero, one, or two doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Outcome takes the value of 1 if they received two shots, and 0 otherwise.

    Time frame: 8 weeks after intervention

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Study locations

1 site
  • JPAL SA at IFMR
    Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 29, 2023, 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
NCT04870593
Lead sponsor
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Responsible party
Esther Duflo (Professor, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 3, 2021
Start date
Apr 17, 2021
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2022
Completion
Sep 30, 2022
Last update
Mar 29, 2023

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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