Evaluation of the impact of Essex Coronavirus Action Support (ECAS) upon Attitudes, Behaviour and public health Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic (PHIRST South Bank)

EEABS: Evaluation of the impact of Essex Coronavirus Action Support (ECAS) upon Attitudes, Behaviour and public health Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic Abstract

Background: Social media platforms are increasingly being employed for health promotion. There is a need to better understand effective strategies and best practice for the implementation of social media intervention. This need is amplified by the continual evolution of social media and the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aims: The current evaluation seeks to investigate the Essex Coronavirus Action Support (ECAS) Facebook digital community development approach. This will investigate efficacy in terms of outcomes and contributing factors for improved health literacy, protective health action, community connectedness and mutual aid the extent to which whole system change is achieved for the public health function.

Method: The mixed methods evaluation will comprise two complementary work packages and will focus on critical phases of the intervention’s deployment, as identified through co-production workshops. The quantitative package will undertake primary analyses of new survey data from ECAS members and a comparator group (n = 450). A social network analysis and sentiment analysis will draw on existing data whilst demographic profiles will be assessed to explore health equity.

The qualitative package will employ a digital ethnography approach. This will include the observation of Facebook interactions through discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders: council staff, the public health team and group admins (n = 17-22). An economic evaluation will be presented alongside the main evaluation findings which seeks to capture economic impact on the local authority, the public health body or individuals and provide greater information on, for example, societal cost and benefit and potential cost effectiveness.

Conclusions: Learning from this evaluation will inform delivery of the digital community development approach and has the potential to inform future initiatives such as the deployment in further regions. Dynamic approaches show promise for the wide potential reach of public health messages and societal benefit.