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Comparison of Knowledge and Information-Seeking Behavior After General COVID-19 Public Health Messages and Messages
Marcella Alsan1, Fatima Cody Stanford2, Abhijit Banerjee3
1Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts (M.A.).
Background:
The paucity of public health messages that directly address communities of color might contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in knowledge and behavior related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Objective:
To determine whether physician-delivered prevention messages affect knowledge and information-seeking behavior of Black and Latinx individuals and whether this differs according to the race/ethnicity of the physician and tailored content.
Design:
Randomized controlled trial. (Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04371419; American Economic Association RCT Registry, AEARCTR-0005789).
Setting:
United States, 13 May 2020 to 26 May 2020.
Participants:
14 267 self-identified Black or Latinx adults recruited via Lucid survey platform.
Intervention:
Participants viewed 3 video messages regarding COVID-19 that varied by physician race/ethnicity, acknowledgment of racism/inequality, and community perceptions of mask wearing.
Measurements:
Knowledge gaps (number of errors on 7 facts on COVID-19 symptoms and prevention) and information-seeking behavior (number of web links demanded out of 10 proposed).
Results:
7174 Black (61.3%) and 4520 Latinx (38.7%) participants were included in the analysis. The intervention reduced the knowledge gap incidence from 0.085 to 0.065 (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.737 [95% CI, 0.600 to 0.874]) but did not significantly change information-seeking incidence. For Black participants, messages from race/ethnicity-concordant physicians increased information-seeking incidence from 0.329 (for discordant physicians) to 0.357 (IRR, 1.085 [CI, 1.026 to 1.145]).
Limitations:
Participants' behavior was not directly observed, outcomes were measured immediately postintervention in May 2020, and online recruitment may not be representative.
Conclusion:
Physician-delivered messages increased knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and prevention methods for Black and Latinx respondents. The desire for additional information increased with race-concordant messages for Black but not Latinx respondents. Other tailoring of the content did not make a significant difference.
Primary Funding Source:
National Science Foundation; Massachusetts General Hospital; and National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
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