Influenza, Vaccination
Conditions
Keywords
influenza, vaccination, text messages, behavioral change
Brief summary
Influenza infection leads to significant morbidity and mortality each year. Influenza vaccines can reduce the risk of flu and the severity of flu illness, In addition, flu vaccinations can reduce flu complications such as pneumonia or worsening of chronic heart or lung disease. Each year, Kaiser Permanente of Colorado offers influenza vaccines to patients at no cost either at primary care clinic appointments or flu walk-in clinics in the fall prior to the upcoming flu season. In addition, as part of clinic appointment reminder text messages, there is a message to get the flu vaccine for patients who have not received the vaccine prior to the clinic visit. Building on these flu reminder text messages for patients who have not received a flu vaccine, this study will test different behavioral nudge text messages to improve influenza vaccination rates.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALBehavioral economics framed test messaging
We will use positive framing and convenience framing as our 2 behavioral text messages to improve flu vaccination rates.
Sponsors
Kaiser Permanente
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Months to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Patients 6 months and older who have not received a flu shot at the time of their primary care clinic appointment reminder will be eligible to receive a flu vaccine reminder text message. For children \<18 years of age, their caregiver will receive the text message
Exclusion criteria
* Patients not eligible for flu vaccine
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Receive flu vaccine | 12 weeks following receipt of first text message reminder | Did the patient receive a flu vaccine as denoted from the EMR. The vaccine could have occurred within Kaiser Permanente Colorado or outside of Kaiser Permanente Colorado and in which Kaiser received information about the flu vaccination during the flu season 2025-2026. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Time to flu vaccination | 12 weeks following receipt of 1st text message reminder | Time from primary care clinic visit that triggered the flu reminder text message and date of flu vaccination as denoted in the EMR. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORMichael Ho, MD, PhD
Kaiser Permanente
Outcome results
None listed