Educational Interventions to Improve COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors

Last registered on April 21, 2020

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Educational Interventions to Improve COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005739

Initial registration date

April 19, 2020

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

April 21, 2020, 11:30 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Prashant Loyalka

Affiliation

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Robert Fairlie

PI Affiliation

UC Santa Cruz

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2020-04-18

End date

2021-04-19

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

COVID-19, coronavirus, RCT, education, information, concepts, science, health

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

As COVID-19 rapidly spreads across the world, developing countries and disadvantaged populations are at particular risk of infection and the adverse consequences associated with infection. Risk may be exacerbated by a lack of knowledge, positive attitudes and behaviors surrounding the pandemic. In this study, we propose a large-scale randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of educational interventions in addressing potential deficiencies in COVID-19 related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Approximately 8,400 low and lower-middle income youth ages 15-30 in urban areas of India are randomly assigned to one of three treatment arms: a 10-minute online, primarily information-based, educational intervention; a 22-minute online educational intervention which mostly provides the same information but includes further explanation of underlying scientific concepts; and a control group. Results are fundamental to understanding the role and nature of education in affecting behavior during the current and future pandemics.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Fairlie, Robert and Prashant Loyalka. 2020. "Educational Interventions to Improve COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors." AEA RCT Registry. April 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5739-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2020-04-21

Intervention End Date

2020-04-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

COVID-19-related Knowledge score, COVID-19-related Attitude score, COVID-19-related Behaviors (5)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Approximately 8000-9000 students (low and lower-middle income youth in urban areas of India) are randomized at the individual level to each of the three treatment conditions.

Experimental Design Details

8,376 students (low and lower-middle income youth in urban areas of India) are randomized at the individual level to each of the three treatment conditions.

Randomization Method

Randomization done on laptop

Randomization Unit

Student (individual)

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

No clusters. 8376 students.

Sample size: planned number of observations

8,376.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Equal sizes of 2,792 per arm.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

With power set at 0.8 and alpha conservatively set at 0.01 (Bonferonni-adjusted to test for five two-sided hypotheses at the 5% significance level), and with 2,792 individuals randomly assigned to each of the three treatment arms, we can estimate minimum detectable effect sizes (MDESs) of 0.09 SDs for each pair-wise treatment comparison. Note that these power calculations do not account for increased statistical precision gained in our favored specification which controls for covariates (baseline knowledge, attitude, behavioral scores, and basic background characteristics including age (years), female (1/0), attended FEA in Delhi (1/0), mother attended senior high or higher (1/0), father attended senior high or higher (1/0)—estimated R-squared of 0.5) and thus reduce the MDES to 0.07 SDs. Given the short duration of the study and the strong ties of FEA with its students, we expect to lose only a small amount of statistical power due to student attrition from baseline to endline surveys (attrition of approximately 5%).

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB