NCT05493787

Nudging Flu Vaccination by Making it Easy for Patients to Schedule a Flu Shot

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 139,503 (actual)
• Sponsor: Geisinger Clinic · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to test whether messages that make it easy to schedule a flu shot appointment will increase flu shot rates in patients without an upcoming appointment. The study will also test which message versions and message timing are most effective for increasing flu vaccination.

Detailed description

The CDC recommends a flu vaccination to everyone aged 6+ months, with rare exception; almost anyone can benefit from the vaccine, which can reduce illnesses, missed work, hospitalizations, and death. Past work from the study team focused on encouraging flu shots for patients with upcoming appointments. However, many patients in the health system do not have any appointments during flu season. Eligible patients without an upcoming appointment will be randomized to a passive control group (no message), an active control group (a basic message stating that the patient can get a flu shot at Geisinger) or one of several other messages informed by behavioral science ("ease", "waiting for you", "protect yourself - rare outcomes", or "protect yourself - frequent outcomes"). Patients will be randomly assigned to one of several message send dates. Messages sent via patient portal, short message service (SMS) text, email, and/or another modality, will include a link redirecting patients to a page where they can self-schedule a flu shot.

Conditions

• Influenza

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Reminder	Patient portal, SMS, email, and/or another modality

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-11-08
• Primary completion: 2023-01-03
• Completion: 2023-01-03
• First posted: 2022-08-09
• Last updated: 2024-12-30
• Results posted: 2024-12-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States