Testing the impact of differing behavioural science informed text message content in COVID-19 vaccination invitations on vaccine uptake: a randomised clinical trial
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Behavioural science constructs can be incorporated into messaging strategies to enhance the effectiveness of public health campaigns by increasing the occurrence of desired behaviours. This study investigated the impact of behavioural science-informed text message strategies on COVID-19 vaccination rates in 18-39-year-olds in an area of low uptake in London during the first vaccination offer round in the United Kingdom. This three-armed randomised trial recruited unvaccinated residents of an urban Central London suburb being offered their first vaccination between May and June 2021. Participants were randomised to receive the control (current practice) text message or one of two different behavioural science-informed COVID-19 vaccine invitation strategies. Both intervention strategies contained the phrase "your vaccine is ready and waiting for you", aiming to evoke a sense of ownership, with one strategy also including a pre-alert message. The main outcome measures were vaccination rates at 3 and 8 weeks after message delivery. A total of 88,820 residents were randomly assigned to one of the three trial arms. Each arm had a vaccine uptake rate of 27.2 %, 27.4 % and 27.3 % respectively. The mean age of participants was 28.2 years (SD ± 5.7), the mean index of multiple deprivation was 4.3 (SD ± 2.0) and 50.4 % were women. Vaccine uptake varied by demographics, however there was no significant difference between trial arms (p = 0.872). Delivery was successful for 53.6 % of text messages. Our choice of behavioural science informed messaging strategies did not improve vaccination rates above the rate seen for the current practice message. This likely reflects the wide exposure to public health campaigns during the pandemic, as such text messages nudges were unlikely to alter existing informed decision-making processes. Text message delivery was relatively low, indicating a need for accurate mobile phone number records and multi-modal approaches to reach eligible patients for vaccination. The protocol was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04895683) on 20/05/2021.
Date Issued
2024-04-19
Date Acceptance
2024-03-22
Citation
Vaccine, 2024, 42 (11), pp.2919-2926
ISSN
0264-410X
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
2919
End Page
2926
Journal / Book Title
Vaccine
Volume
42
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38553291
PII: S0264-410X(24)00365-7
Subjects
Adult
COVID-19
COVID-19 Vaccines
Female
Humans
Male
Reminder Systems
Text Messaging
Vaccination
Vaccines
Behavioural insight
COVID-19 vaccinations
Text message
Vaccination uptake
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Netherlands
Date Publish Online
2024-03-28