None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
State-based Guidelines were issued for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services recommending greater time outdoors and inclusion of indoor-outdoor programs to facilitate social distancing to reduce spread of COVID-19. The aim of this 3-arm randomised controlled trial was to examine the impact of different dissemination strategies on increasing ECEC service intentions to adopt recommendations from the Guidelines. The intervention was designed to address key determinants of guideline adoption including awareness and knowledge. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a generic email (control group) or an email that included a link to an e-newsletter or animated video (intervention groups) with further information regarding the Guidelines. It was hypothesised that services receiving the e-newsletter or animated video would have a greater intention to adopt the Guidelines. Following delivery of the intervention in September 2021, services were invited to participate in an online or telephone survey from October-December 2021. This study found potential for the inclusion of interactive strategies to disseminate policy and guideline information within the ECEC setting, in the context of the need for rapid communication. Further research should explore the added benefits of embedding such strategies within a multi-strategy intervention.
Interventions
Early Childhood and Education Centres (ECEC) were randomly allocated to one of three arms: i) e-newsletter group; ii) animated video group; or iii) control group. All participants received an email containing links to the COVID-19 specific Guidelines for New South Wales (NSW) ECEC services released by the NSW Department of Education. For both intervention groups, an additional link to either the e-newsletter or animated video was embedded within the email.
The intervention resources focused on a
Early Childhood and Education Centres (ECEC) were randomly allocated to one of three arms: i) e-newsletter group; ii) animated video group; or iii) control group. All participants received an email containing links to the COVID-19 specific Guidelines for New South Wales (NSW) ECEC services released by the NSW Department of Education. For both intervention groups, an additional link to either the e-newsletter or animated video was embedded within the email. The intervention resources focused on addressing key barriers associated with Guideline adoption within the ECEC setting. Both intervention resources addressed the same barriers to Guideline adoption, however the animated video resource, a novel approach to delivering guideline information, was developed to elicit an emotional reaction through the inclusion of audio and visual elements, including a visual demonstration of the behaviour. Barriers to guideline adoption that were targeted in the intervention were; i) lack of awareness of the guidelines, ii) lack of knowledge and understanding of the guidelines, iii) lack of understanding regarding the benefits of the guidelines, iv) lack of belief they are capable of adopting the guidelines and v) lack of priority in adopting the guidelines. Strategies used tom address these barriers were; i) using language ECEC educators can relate to and understand, ii) highlight how the guidelines apply to ECEC services, iii) promoting the benefits of the guidelines, iv) using language that is strength-based and action focused and providing examples to facilitate adoption, v) highlight the source of the guidelines and the benefits in relation to COVID-19 risk. The e-newsletter was approximately 2 pages of text, requiring an estimated 2-3 minutes to read and was provided to participants as a link within an email so participants could open the link more than once if they desired. Unique views of the e-newsletter were captured which equates to views from a unique device. Additionally average view duration was calculated, along with percent of the e-newsletter read and proportion of viewers that read in-depth the e-newsletter. These analytics are available through the Microsoft platform that the e-newsletter was housed on. The animated video duration is 3 minutes 28 seconds and was provided to participants as a link within an email so participants could open the link more than once if they desired. Unique views for the animated video were captured which equates to views for 30 seconds or more. Additionally average view duration was calculated, along with percent of the animated video watched and proportion of viewers that watched the entire video. These analytics are available through YouTube.
Sponsors
Hunter New England Local Health District
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
ECEC services located in NSW, publicly available through the National register (Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)).
Exclusion criteria
Services were removed from the sample if they were: 1) not listed as either a preschool or long day care service (e.g. family day care service, or before and after school care); 2) listed as a Department of Education service; 3) temporarily closed; 4) located outside of the state of NSW; or 5) were concurrently selected to participate in a nationwide survey being conducted by the research team. ECEC services located within the Hunter New England Local Health District of NSW were also excluded from the current randomised controlled trial, as they were already participating in a separate intervention to improve outdoor free play.
Outcome results
None listed