{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,10]],"date-time":"2026-03-10T02:46:04Z","timestamp":1773110764638,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,22]],"date-time":"2021-11-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1637539200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/journals\/pages\/open_access\/funder_policies\/chorus\/standard_publication_model"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Summary<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p>COVID-19 misinformation has spread rapidly across social media. To counter misinformation, we designed a short, wordless and animated video (called the CoVideo) to deliver scientifically informed and emotionally compelling information about preventive COVID-19 behaviours. After 15 163 online participants were recruited from Germany, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the USA, we offered participants in the attention placebo control (APC) and do-nothing arms the option to watch the CoVideo (without additional compensation) as post-trial access to treatment. The objective of our study was to evaluate participant engagement by quantifying (i) the proportion of participants opting to watch the CoVideo and (ii) the duration of time spent watching the CoVideo. We quantified the CoVideo opt-in and view time by experimental arm, age, gender, educational status, country of residence and COVID-19 prevention knowledge. Overall engagement with the CoVideo was high: 72% of the participants [CI: 71.1%; 73.0%] opted to watch the CoVideo with an average view time of 138.9 out of 144.0 s [CI: 138.4; 139.4], with no statistically significant differences by arm. Older participants (35\u201359 years) and participants with higher COVID-19 prevention knowledge had higher view times than their counterparts. Spanish participants had the highest opt-in percentage whereas Germans exhibited the shortest view times of the five countries. Short, wordless and animated storytelling videos, optimized for \u2018viral spread\u2019 on social media, can enhance global engagement with COVID-19 prevention messages by transcending cultural, language and literary barriers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/heapro\/daab179","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,26]],"date-time":"2021-10-26T11:12:33Z","timestamp":1635246753000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Participant engagement with a short, wordless, animated video on COVID-19 prevention: a multi-site randomized trial"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"38","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7448-3736","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Caterina","family":"Favaretti","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University , 130.3 Im Neuenheimer Feld , Heidelberg 69120, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maya","family":"Adam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine , Stanford, 453 Quarry Road Palo Alto, CA 94304-5660, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Merlin","family":"Greuel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University , 130.3 Im Neuenheimer Feld , Heidelberg 69120, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Violetta","family":"Hachaturyan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University , 130.3 Im Neuenheimer Feld , Heidelberg 69120, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jennifer","family":"Gates","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai One Gustave L. Levy Place New York , NY 10029-6574, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Till","family":"B\u00e4rnighausen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University , 130.3 Im Neuenheimer Feld , Heidelberg 69120, Germany"},{"name":"Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) , Private Bag X7, Congella, Durban 4013, South Africa"},{"name":"Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies , 9 Bow Street, MA 02138, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alain","family":"Vandormael","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University , 130.3 Im Neuenheimer Feld , Heidelberg 69120, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"010343","DOI":"10.7189\/jogh.10.010343","article-title":"Design for extreme scalability: a wordless, globally scalable COVID-19 prevention animation for rapid public health communication","volume":"10","author":"Adam","year":"2020","journal-title":"Journal of Global Health"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e12128","DOI":"10.2196\/12128","article-title":"Human-centered design of video-based health education: an iterative, collaborative, community-based approach","volume":"21","author":"Adam","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B3","author":"Barnhart","year":"2021"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100119","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pdisas.2020.100119","article-title":"Effects of misinformation on COVID-19 individual responses and recommendations for resilience of disastrous consequences of misinformation","volume":"8","author":"Barua","year":"2020","journal-title":"Progress in Disaster Science"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e92","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.6668","article-title":"Gender-specific determinants and patterns of online health information seeking: results from a representative German health survey","volume":"19","author":"Baumann","year":"2017","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e128","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.2934","article-title":"Use of the Internet as a health information resource among French young adults: results from a nationally representative survey","volume":"16","author":"Beck","year":"2014","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e156","DOI":"10.2196\/jmir.4127","article-title":"Gender differences in searching for health information on the Internet and the virtual patient-physician relationship in Germany: exploratory results on how men and women differ and why","volume":"17","author":"Bidmon","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Medical Internet Research"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"239","DOI":"10.1086\/317987","article-title":"The origins and consequences of public trust in government","volume":"64","author":"Chanley","year":"2000","journal-title":"Public Opinion Quarterly"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16598","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-020-73510-5","article-title":"The COVID-19 social media infodemic","volume":"10","author":"Cinelli","year":"2020","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"335","DOI":"10.1089\/tmj.2017.0136","article-title":"Gender similarities and differences for e-health behaviors among U.S. adults","volume":"24","author":"Escoffery","year":"2018","journal-title":"Telemedicine Journal and e-Health"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B11","author":"German Clinical Trials Register","year":"2021"},{"key":"2023081910153735900_daab179-B12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2312","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2013.04.016","article-title":"What makes a video go viral? 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