Text-message ‘nudges’ can encourage holdouts to get COVID vaccination, study finds

New UCLA-led research indicates that simple text messages emphasizing the easy availability of COVID-19 vaccines successfully boosted the number of people who got the shot.The researchers, from theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, theUCLA Anderson School of Management and Carnegie Mellon University, say their findings held true across all demographics, including groups that have been hesitant to receive the vaccine.“We found that text messages that stressed the accessibility of the vaccine and that included ‘ownership’ language — such as ‘The vaccine has just been made available for you’ and ‘Claim your dose today’ — significantly increased vaccine uptake,” said senior study author Dr. Dani el Croymans, a primary care physician and medical director of quality at UCLA Health.For the study,published today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, the researchers analyzed data from two randomized, controlled trials conducted with UCLA Health patients, most over the age of 65, who were eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in January and February 2021.In the first trial, about 93,000 participants who had initially been notified byemail, regular mail or phone of their eligibility for the vaccine either did not receive a follow-up text or received one of four types of messages: a simple text reminder, a reminder that included an informationalvideo, a reminder with the above-mentioned ownership language, or a reminder with both ownership language and the video. All...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news