Abstract
Encouraging vaccination is a pressing policy problem. To assess whether text-based reminders can encourage pharmacy vaccination and what kinds of messages work best, we conducted a megastudy. We randomly assigned 689,693 Walmart pharmacy patients to receive one of 22 different text reminders using a variety of different behavioral science principles to nudge flu vaccination or to a business-as-usual control condition that received no messages. We found that the reminder texts that we tested increased pharmacy vaccination rates by an average of 2.0 percentage points, or 6.8%, over a 3-mo follow-up period. The mosteffective messages reminded patients that a flu shot was waiting for them and delivered reminders on multiple days. The topperforming intervention included two texts delivered 3 d apart and communicated to patients that a vaccine was "waiting for you." Neither experts nor lay people anticipated that this would be the best-performing treatment, underscoring the value of simultaneously testing many different nudges in a highly powered megastudy.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | e2115126119 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Volume | 119 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 8 2022 |
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Field experiment
- Influenza
- Nudge
- Vaccination
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General