Influenza
Conditions
Keywords
Text messaging
Brief summary
Influenza morbidity and mortality cause a substantial financial burden to the NHS and to the UK as a whole. Influenza vaccine is safe and effective but is required annually because the circulating strain of virus changes each year. In the UK in 2012, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) recommended that at least 75% of elderly people (aged 65+) and 75% people under 65 with certain chronic conditions (e.g. chronic heart disease, diabetes, asthma, etc) should be vaccinated. While primary care practices are achieving these targets for elderly patients, those set for younger patients with chronic conditions are not being met, with a third of patients being missed in the 2011/12 flu season and with no substantial improvements in uptake in the past decade. Therefore strategies to increase flu vaccine uptake in these patients are required. Previous trials have shown that patient reminders can increase vaccine uptake and in particular, text messaging has shown to work in some populations in the United States as a cheap, simple and effective reminder. However, whether the same is true in UK general practice is unclear. The use of text messaging in the NHS for appointment reminders is also increasing as it is cheap, quick and effective. Text messaging is already used in roughly 30% of practices to remind patients about their flu vaccine but there has been no trial addressing its effectiveness. Therefore, we propose a trial of a text messaging flu vaccine reminder in patients aged under 65 who have a chronic condition. We hypothesise that practices that send a text message will have increased flu vaccine uptake.
Interventions
OTHERText message influenza vaccination reminder
Practices in the text messaging intervention arm will be asked to send a text message to patients under 65 at risk of influenza.
OTHERStandard care
Practices in the standard care arm will be asked to proceed with their seasonal influenza campaign as planned.
Sponsors
Wellcome Trust
National Health Service, United Kingdom
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 64 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* practices must use text messaging software to communicate with patients; * practices must not have used a text message to remind patients aged under 65 about influenza vaccine in the 2012/13 influenza season. * practices will send the text message to eligible patients who are aged between 18 and 65, with one of the following risk conditions: chronic respiratory disease, chronic liver disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic heart disease, chronic neurological disease, immunosuppression
Exclusion criteria
* practices will not send the text message to pregnant women.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Proportion of patients at risk who received flu vaccine | up to 9 months |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Proportion of practices reporting 'yes' to difficulties | up to 3 months | Proportion of practices reporting 'yes' that they had difficulties in sending the text message to patients |
| Recruitment rate | 3 months after initial contact | This is a pilot feasibility study and recruitment of practices to the trial is an outcome. |
| Practice delivery of text message | One month after study start (October 1st 2013) | Did the practice send the text message to eligible patients and was the content of the message as described in the protocol. |
| Were outcome data available | up to 9 months | Were outcome data regarding text message and flu vaccine uptake available. |
Countries
United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed