Germ Defence is a behaviour change website, based on scientific evidence, that gives practical advice on how to reduce the spread of infection in the home. In a randomised controlled trial – in more than 20,000 households (Little et al., 2015), using Germ Defence reduced the spread of seasonal and swine flu. It helped reduce the risk of these respiratory infections by around 14 per cent, and reduced the number of GP visits and antibiotic prescriptions needed by people who used the website. The website has now been updated for use during the coronavirus pandemic.
Researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Bath and Southampton have received funding from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to understand how good Germ Defence is at reducing coronavirus infection. They will work with GP practices in England, who will be asked to send patients a special link to the Germ Defence website.
Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) England, has made this a national priority task and is now a part of the NIHR Clinical Research Network’s (CRN) COVID-19 public fitness portfolio.
Germ Defense’s Coronavirus Edition is helping others understand what steps to take and when to take them in the event of infection. This includes washing hands, sharing rooms and surfaces, managing deliveries, and ventilating rooms. By using habit replacement techniques, you’re helping other people consider and adopt better hygiene habits at home and find ways to overcome obstacles.
A series of questions on the website take around 10 minutes to answer. People then get tailored advice that fits their personal circumstances, designed to help them make lasting changes. The website has been translated into more than 20 languages.
Germ Defense’s updated online page can help you save or lessen a wave of coronavirus and flu during the fall and winter of 2020-21, as we know that the coronavirus is caught in the same way as viruses like the flu. It has been updated for coronavirus, we don’t yet know if it decreases coronavirus infections. The purpose of this task is to verify the effectiveness of the new Germ Defense online page in reducing coronavirus infections.
Half of GP surgeries in England were decided at random and asked to send the link to Germ Defence’s online page to their patients in the autumn of 2020. The other part of the clinics was contacted to send the link to Germ Defense’s online page in March 2021. Researchers will read about the effects of the Germ Defense online page on rates of respiratory infection (including coronavirus and seasonal flu) and whether it reduces health care use (including the number of GP visits, antibiotic prescriptions and hospitalisations) in the two randomised groups. groups.
GPs will not be required to send data to the study team. After sending the unique link to the online page to their patients, the researchers will know if the patients are the Germ Defense online page from the anonymous knowledge produced through the online page. The team studies whether any patients in each practice have used the online page, but will not record who those patients are.
The study team will also use anonymised NHS data, collected nationally as a component of the care regimen, to compare whether infection rates and use of fitness services decline in practices that sent germ defence data to their patients right away, with those who sent data later.
Frequently Asked Questions About Germ Defense for Patients
Frequently Asked Questions about Germ Defense for General Practitioner Staff
Frequently Asked Questions about Germ Defense for Clinical Research Networks (CRNs)
The previous trial showed that other people who followed Germ Defense’s recommendation suffered fewer and less severe infections, as did the other people they live with. If Germ Defense’s updated online page helps prevent infections, adding coronavirus infections, it’s possible that simply assistance saves lives by reducing the spread of the virus and may simply slow or save you from a wave of coronavirus and flu this fall and winter. By reducing the number of infections and the use of fitness services, this can prevent the NHS from being affected. hit at its most active.
The trial is a collaboration between the universities of Bristol, Bath and Southampton and is led through the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West).
GPs will not be paid for their participation in the trial, but when they send the link to Germ Defense to their patients, it will be taken into account in the study activities of the Research Sites Initiative (RSI) programme.
The task is funded through the UKRI Coronavirus Rapid Response Call, NIHR ARC West and NIHR’s Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Sciences and Evaluation (NIHR HPRU BSE) and supported through Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), Better Care South-West Partnership and the University of Bristol Primary Care Centre.
Ethical approval has been granted through the NHS Health Research Authority, Leeds West – Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
1NIHR ARC West; 2NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol; 3Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol; 4Health Data Research UK Better Care South-West Partnership.