The Library
Can uptake of childhood influenza immunisation through schools and GP practices be increased through behaviourally-informed invitation letters and reminders : two pragmatic randomized controlled trials
Tools
Howell-Jones, Rebecca, Gold, Natalie, Bowen, Sarah, Bunten, Amanda, Tan, Karen, Saei, Ayoub, Jones, Sarah, MacDonald, Pauline, Watson, Robin, Bennett, Kirsty and Chadborn, Tim (2023) Can uptake of childhood influenza immunisation through schools and GP practices be increased through behaviourally-informed invitation letters and reminders : two pragmatic randomized controlled trials. BMC Public Health, 23 (1). 143. doi:10.1186/s12889-022-14439-4 ISSN 1471-2458.
|
PDF
s12889-022-14439-4.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (1255Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14439-4
Abstract
Background
The UK is rolling out a national childhood influenza immunisation programme for children, delivered through primary care and schools. Behaviourally-informed letters and reminders have been successful at increasing uptake of other public health interventions. Therefore, we investigated the effects of a behaviourally-informed letter on uptake of the vaccine at GP practices, and of a letter and a reminder (SMS/ email) on uptake at schools.
Methods and results
Study 1 was a cluster-randomised parallel trial of 21,786 two- and three-year olds in 250 GP practices, conducted during flu season (September to January inclusive) 2016/7. The intervention was a centrally-sent behaviourally-informed invitation letter, control was usual care. The proportion of two- and three-year olds in each practice who received a vaccination by 31st January 2017 was 23.4% in the control group compared to 37.1% in the intervention group (OR = 1.93; 95% CI = 1.82, 2.05, p < 0.001).
Study 2 was a 2 (behavioural letter vs standard letter) × 2 (reminder vs no reminder) factorial trial of 1108 primary schools which included 3010 school years 1–3. Letters were sent to parents from providers, and reminders sent to parents from the schools. In the standard-letter-no-reminder arm, an average of 61.6% of eligible children in each school year were vaccinated, compared to 61.9% in the behavioural-letter-no-reminder arm, 63.5% in the standard-letter-plus-reminder arm, and 62.9% in the behavioural-letter-plus reminder condition, F(3, 2990) = 2.68, p = 0.046. In a multi-level model, with demographic variables as fixed effects, the proportion of eligible students in the school year who were vaccinated increased with the reminder, β = 0.086 (0.041), p < 0.036, but there was no effect of the letter nor any interaction effect.
Conclusion
Sending a behaviourally informed invitation letter can increase uptake of childhood influenza vaccines at the GP surgery compared to usual practice. A reminder SMS or email can increase uptake of the influenza vaccine in schools, but the effect size was minimal.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics |
||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Immunization of children -- England, Influenza vaccines -- England, Influenza -- Vaccination -- England, Vaccination of children -- England -- Statistics | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | BMC Public Health | ||||||
Publisher: | BioMed Central Ltd. | ||||||
ISSN: | 1471-2458 | ||||||
Official Date: | 20 January 2023 | ||||||
Dates: |
|
||||||
Volume: | 23 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Article Number: | 143 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1186/s12889-022-14439-4 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 1 March 2023 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 1 March 2023 | ||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
|
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year