Educational Video + Reminder Email for Pneumonia Vaccination

(PROPEL Trial)

Overseen By Cassandra Laurie, MSc

Age: 65+

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: University of Ottawa

Disqualifiers: Nursing home resident, others

Approved in 1 Jurisdiction This treatment is already approved in other countries

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: 2

What You Need to Know Before You Apply

What is the purpose of this trial?

This trial aims to determine if an educational video about pneumococcal vaccines, combined with a reminder email, encourages more vaccinations compared to a reminder email alone. Researchers seek to discover if the video enhances knowledge and attitudes about the vaccine and increases willingness to receive it. The trial seeks adults aged 65 or older living in Canada who have not yet received a pneumococcal vaccine and can understand English or French. Participants will complete surveys and, if selected, watch the video and receive a reminder email.

As an unphased trial, this study provides participants the chance to contribute to important research that could improve public health education strategies.

Do I need to stop my current medications to join the trial?

The trial protocol does not specify whether you need to stop taking your current medications. It seems unlikely, as the trial focuses on educational interventions for vaccination.

What prior data suggests that this educational intervention is safe?

Research has shown that watching educational videos about pneumococcal vaccines, like the one in this trial, is safe. These videos resemble those used by healthcare professionals to educate themselves and the public about vaccines. Since this trial involves only watching a video and receiving an email reminder, it poses no health risks. Participants will gain knowledge about the pneumococcal vaccine, which helps protect against serious infections. The safety of this educational activity is assured, as it does not involve taking any medication or undergoing medical procedures. ^{1 2 3}

Why are researchers excited about this trial?

Researchers are excited about this trial because it explores the impact of combining a web-based educational video with reminder emails to increase pneumonia vaccination rates. Unlike traditional methods that rely solely on verbal or written reminders from healthcare providers, this approach leverages digital technology to engage patients more interactively and conveniently. The educational video aims to provide clear information about the benefits of vaccination, potentially leading to increased understanding and motivation to get vaccinated. By integrating technology in this way, the trial could uncover more effective strategies for boosting vaccination uptake, which is crucial for preventing pneumonia.

What evidence suggests that this educational video and reminder email could be effective for improving pneumococcal vaccine uptake?

Research has shown that educational videos can help more older adults receive the pneumococcal vaccine. In this trial, participants will receive either a reminder email to get vaccinated or a combination of a web-based educational video on pneumococcal vaccination and a reminder email. One study found that older adults who watched videos about vaccines were more likely to receive the pneumococcal vaccine, especially when they also used other educational materials. Another study found that video-based online platforms improved attitudes and increased willingness to get vaccinated. These findings suggest that educational videos might effectively increase vaccine uptake and improve understanding of pneumococcal vaccination. ^{1 4 5}

Who Is on the Research Team?

Giorgia Sulis, PhD

Principal Investigator

School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?

This trial is for adults aged 65 or older living in Canada who haven't had a pneumococcal vaccine and can understand English or French. It's not for those living in nursing homes.

Inclusion Criteria

I can understand English and/or French.

I live at home, not in a nursing home.

I have not received a pneumococcal vaccine.

Timeline for a Trial Participant

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

1-2 weeks

Baseline Assessment

Participants fill out a web-based baseline survey to assess knowledge, barriers, facilitators, and willingness to receive the pneumococcal vaccine

1 week

1 online survey

Intervention

Participants receive access to the educational video (if assigned to the intervention group) and an email reminder to be vaccinated

Immediate

Follow-up

Participants fill in a web-based follow-up survey to evaluate changes in vaccine knowledge, attitudes, willingness, and uptake

4-6 months

1 online survey

What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?

Interventions

• Reminder email to be vaccinated
• Web-based educational video on pneumococcal vaccination

Trial Overview The study tests if a web-based educational video on pneumococcal vaccines plus an email reminder increases vaccine uptake compared to just the email reminder. Participants will fill out surveys before and after the intervention.

How Is the Trial Designed?

Group I: Web-based educational video on pneumococcal vaccination and reminder email to be vaccinated Active Control 2 Interventions

Group II: Reminder email to be vaccinated Placebo Group 1 Intervention

Web-based educational video on pneumococcal vaccination is already approved in Canada for the following indications:

Approved in Canada as Web-based educational video on pneumococcal vaccination for:

• Education on pneumococcal vaccination for adults aged 65 or older

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

University of Ottawa

Lead Sponsor

Trials

231

Recruited

267,000+

Published Research Related to This Trial

A culturally appropriate patient education videotape combined with a low-literacy brochure significantly increased pneumococcal vaccination rates among a predominantly black, elderly population in an inner-city public hospital, with patients being 3.5 times more likely to receive the vaccine compared to the control group.

The study, which involved 558 participants, found that the combination of the videotape and brochure was crucial for enhancing discussions with physicians about the vaccine, highlighting the importance of comprehensive educational materials rather than relying solely on audiovisual content.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Patient education strategies to improve pneumococcal vaccination rates: randomized trial. Thomas, DM., Ray, SM., Morton, FJ., et al.[2018]

The study found a significantly higher rate of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) in children aged 0-10 years in the Czech Republic, with a rate of 209 per 100,000 doses, compared to the official report of 34 per 100,000 doses.

Most AEFI were mild and non-serious, such as local redness and fever, typically occurring two days post-vaccination and lasting about four days, highlighting the need for better public education on reporting these events to improve vaccine safety and confidence.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Active surveillance study of adverse events following immunisation of children in the Czech Republic. Danova, J., Kocourkova, A., Celko, AM.[2022]

Pneumococcal vaccination significantly reduces pneumonia-related readmission rates and mortality in patients aged 65 and older, with a 35% reduction in pneumonia and all-cause mortality observed with appropriate vaccination.

A structured vaccination initiative at a skilled nursing facility successfully increased pneumococcal vaccine uptake from 28% to 66%, demonstrating that tailored, evidence-based interventions can effectively enhance vaccination rates.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Improving Rates of Pneumococcal Vaccination in a Skilled Nursing Facility. Helms, J., Reinbeck, D.[2022]

Out of 39,933 adverse event reports, 5,718 (7.0%) were linked to pneumococcal vaccines, with the most common adverse events being fever in children after pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines (PPSVs) and injection-site reactions in adults.

The study identified 13 new adverse event signals related to PPSVs, including four that were not listed on vaccine labels, highlighting the need for further research to validate these findings, especially in children.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Signal Detection of Adverse Events Following Pneumococcal Vaccines from the Korea Adverse Event Reporting System Database, 2005-2016. Kim, KS., Oh, IS., Kim, HJ., et al.[2020]

The implementation of a computerized reminder for pneumococcal vaccination at hospital discharge significantly increased vaccination rates from 3.4% to 45% among eligible patients, demonstrating its effectiveness in improving vaccine uptake.

Certain patient characteristics influenced vaccination rates, with those diagnosed with alcoholism being more likely to receive the vaccine, while those with cancer and patients under hematology-oncology or cardiology specialists were less likely, indicating a need for targeted interventions.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A strategy to improve the utilization of pneumococcal vaccine. Clancy, CM., Gelfman, D., Poses, RM.[2019]

A closed-loop informatics approach was implemented in the Emergency Department over a 6-week period, resulting in an increase in pneumococcal vaccination rates for patients aged 65 and older from 49.8% to 54.9%.

Out of 572 candidate patients, 28 received the vaccine during their ED visit, highlighting the challenges in patient and physician acceptance despite the improved vaccination rates.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Prospective evaluation of a closed-loop, computerized reminder system for pneumococcal vaccination in the emergency department. Dexheimer, JW., Jones, I., Waitman, R., et al.[2019]

Physicians generally believe that the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) is safe and effective, but they face challenges such as difficulty in determining patients' vaccination status and a lack of knowledge about re-vaccination, which hinder vaccination rates.

Patients often lack awareness of the PPV and many do not remember being informed or recommended to receive the vaccine by their doctors, contributing to low vaccination rates and racial disparities.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Adult pneumococcal vaccination: a review of physician and patient barriers. Mieczkowski, TA., Wilson, SA.[2019]

A stepwise educational and decision support program significantly improved pneumococcal vaccination assessment rates for hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia, increasing from 0% to 96%.

For patients over 65 years, the vaccination assessment rates rose dramatically, demonstrating that targeted interventions can effectively enhance compliance with vaccination best practices.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Overcoming barriers to pneumococcal vaccination in patients with pneumonia. Scheurer, DB., Cawley, PJ., Brown, SB., et al.[2018]

A meta-analysis of safety data from 13 studies involving 4729 infants receiving the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) and 2760 receiving the 7-valent vaccine (PCV7) showed that both vaccines had similar rates of local reactions and systemic events, indicating comparable safety profiles.

PCV13 demonstrated a favorable safety profile, with no clinically significant differences in adverse events compared to PCV7, which has over 10 years of clinical experience, suggesting that PCV13 is a safe option for routine immunization in infants and young children.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Safety of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in infants and children: meta-analysis of 13 clinical trials in 9 countries. Thompson, A., Gurtman, A., Patterson, S., et al.[2015]

Vaccine safety is rigorously monitored, with comprehensive systems in place to differentiate between adverse events that occur after vaccination and those caused by the vaccine itself.

The article highlights international vaccine withdrawals due to safety concerns and recent advancements in safety monitoring, emphasizing the commitment to ensuring vaccine safety and addressing vaccine hesitancy.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Vaccine safety. Reid, S.[2020]

In a study involving 153 employees, 42% participated in testing an app designed for reporting adverse events following immunization (AEFI), with 63% of users rating the experience positively, indicating good acceptance of the app-based technology.

Concerns about data protection were the main reason for declining participation, suggesting that improving data security measures could enhance the acceptability and effectiveness of app-based AEFI reporting systems.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

User preferences for a mobile application to report adverse events following vaccination. Nguyen, MTH., Ott, JJ., Caputo, M., et al.[2020]

An integrated information technology system in the emergency department (ED) increased pneumococcal vaccination rates from 38.8% to 45.4% among eligible patients aged 65 and older, demonstrating its effectiveness in a challenging healthcare setting.

Of the 2062 eligible patients, only 30.1% consented to vaccination, and despite physician prompts for 68.9% of these patients, 30.9% of physicians declined to order the vaccine, highlighting the need for improved clinician engagement in vaccination efforts.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A computerized pneumococcal vaccination reminder system in the adult emergency department. Dexheimer, JW., Talbot, TR., Ye, F., et al.[2021]

Citations

1. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10483303/

Randomized Controlled Trial of Project PREVENT Educational videos showed improvement in pneumococcal vaccine uptake in older adults but only when paired with an educational brochure. Other studies showed ...

2. tandfonline.com tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19325037.2023.2295553

Evaluating the Impact of Educational Videos on Vaccine ... Prior work by this group showed that using a video-based online vaccine education platform resulted in positive shifts in vaccine-related ...

3. prevnar20adult.pfizerpro.com prevnar20adult.pfizerpro.com/access-support/videos

Videos about PREVNAR 20® (Pneumococcal 20- ... Discover educational videos for healthcare professionals about the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine PREVNAR 20®.

4. youtube.com youtube.com/watch?v=vXT7k8viwdM

Pneumococcal Pneumonia: Frequently Asked Questions ... NLE pneumonia is a yearr round threat to our patients so we should assess the vaccination status of our patients at every encounter.

5. cdc.gov cdc.gov/pneumococcal/vaccines/index.html

Pneumococcal Vaccination Pneumococcal vaccines help protect against pneumococcal infections, including invasive disease. Invasive disease means the bacteria invade parts of the body, ...