This is an R01 funded study. Dime la VerDAD (Verify, Debunk And Disseminate) will evaluate the use of storytelling by promotores de salud as a communication strategy to identify and debunk misinformation on social media and improve vaccine uptake for COVID-19 and influenza in largely Hispanic communities in the city of Chicago. This work will test a model of community engagement and

empowerment around health communication while providing greater understanding as to how credible scientific information can be shared so that it changes opinions and behaviors. Our approach uses a rigorous stepped-wedge design to address an under-explored and vital issue of misinformation spread within communities that experience health disparities.

Dime La VerDAD (Verify, Debunk, and Disseminate) is an innovative social media capacity-building program based on theoretical frameworks related to health communication that empowers promotores de salud to debunk vaccine misinformation through the use of personal narratives on social media. The proposed work will use a rigorous stepped wedge design to:

1) Identify and evaluate promotores' use of social media to disseminate vaccine information in the Hispanic community;

2) Engage Promotores de Salud as community champions in an adapted science communication curriculum so they can learn to identify and debunk misinformation;

3) Test effectiveness of personal-narrative posts versus resharing of standardized debunking content shared by promotores de salud to their social networks.

This is a mixed methods study.

1. We will conduct focus groups and key informant interviews with promotores de salud recruited through Illinois Unidos partnerships to verify their peers' information sources about vaccines, vaccine-related misbeliefs, perceptions of vaccine safety, and personal plans to get vaccinated.

2. Participants will learn how to make their own infographics to debunk misinformation as well as incorporate their personal narratives into posts. Promotores will also recruit members of their social media circles to participate as subjects to test the effectiveness of their posts.

3.Using a stepped-wedge approach, members of promotores' social media circles will be surveyed to measure the reach and effectiveness of various types of social media posts. We hypothesize that community champions will be viewed as trusted messengers within their social circles and that debunking posts with personal narrative using principles from the training program will be disseminated, viewed, and recalled more often as compared to a standard post without personal narrative and lead to increased COVID and influenza vaccination uptake.

Microsoft Office software including Word, Excel, Teams

Social media apps including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp

Provided by mentor: Dedoose, Rev transcription software, REDCap access