An interventional study of COVID-19 vaccine and booster training, and importance in Rheumatic Diseases, COVID-19 Vaccine and COVID-19, sponsored by Northwestern University. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 85 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-29.
Sponsored by Northwestern University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
To establish the efficacy of a community-based POL (Popular Opinion Leader) intervention with two different trainings designed to increase COVID-19 vaccine and booster uptake and reduce hesitancy among social networks of Black individuals with rheumatic conditions. The investigators will also determine the structure and composition of the personal and outreach social networks of POLs.
Through community-academic partnerships in Boston and Chicago, investigators will recruit and randomly assign POLs who identify as Black with rheumatic conditions to two training arms in each city. Arms 1 and 2 will receive the same core curriculum addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, safety and efficacy. POLs will work in their communities to distributed information they learned in the trainings to members of their social network. The investigators will gather information about these social networks, assessing for differences in characteristics such as size, location, and who is in it (percentage of family, percentage Black, percentage with rheumatic conditions).
377 studies on the registry are indexed under Rheumatic Diseases; 79 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 60 is below the median of 74 across 210 interventional studies indexed under Rheumatic Diseases.
Browse Rheumatic Diseases studies →Northwestern University is the lead sponsor of 1,396 studies on the registry; 199 are open to participants now.
Of its 102 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 73 (72%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
POLs:
18-85 years old; All genders; English-speaking; Self-identify as Black and/or African descent; Received ≥1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine after 8.31.2022 (bivalent booster or updated COVID-19 vaccine [2023-2024] formula)
Social network members:
At least 18 years of age; All genders; English-speaking or Haitian Creole or Spanish-speaking if the POL also speaks Haitian Creole or Spanish; Not have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine 2023-2024 formula; Recent (within 3 months) COVID-19 infection and either undecided or no intention of receiving the vaccine.
Exclusion Criteria:
Both POLs and social network members:
Under 18 years of age Pregnant women Institutionalized or incarcerated Those who are up to date on COVID vaccinations
Group training involving COVID-19 vaccine and booster information, including background, development, and myths.
Behavioral: COVID-19 vaccine and booster training, and importance
Group training involving COVID-19 vaccine and booster information, including background, development, and myths. Contains extra training component that is undisclosed until the end of the study so as not to introduce bias.
Behavioral: COVID-19 vaccine and booster training, and importance
COVID-19 vaccine and booster information training
Receipt of >1 COVID-19 vaccine or booster dose
This will be measured as documentation of receipt of \>1 additional COVID-19 vaccine or booster dose above network members' baseline number of doses, scored yes or no.
Time frame: 6 months
Change in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy
This will be measured as the network members' absolute change in vaccine hesitancy scale score comparing 6 months to baseline between the two study arms, using the validated 10-item Likert Vaccine Hesitancy Scale, score range 10-50.
Time frame: 6 months
Structure and composition of the Popular Opinion Leader outreach networks.
A mixed methods social network assessment tool will be used to compare the structures and compositions of the outreach social networks of the Popular Opinion Leaders between the two intervention arms. This is not scored but rather used to create social network map and to understand characteristics of social networks.
Time frame: 6 months
Plan to share: Yes — The final data sets from this project will include participant reported survey outcomes and will be de-identified in accordance with HIPAA guidelines. Several methods of resource sharing will be employed by this project including:1)Publishing of results in scientific journals and presentation at professional meetings 2)Replies to requests from individuals for data, and sent via secure methods such as password protected files 3)Posting of POL training curriculum after all data are collected on Dr. Ramsey-Goldman's (MPI) NU webpage 4)Posting study-specific adaptations made to social network survey on website of Dr. Dhand (Co-Investigator).
Supporting information: Study protocol
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in May 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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