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Effect of Text Messaging and Behavioral Interventions on COVID-19 Vaccination UptakeA Randomized Clinical Trial

Educational Objective
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article
1 Credit CME
Key Points

Question  Can text messaging with behavioral insights increase participation in COVID-19 vaccine outreach?

Findings  In this randomized clinical trial comprising 16 045 participants, text messaging did not result in a higher response rate than outbound telephone calls. Behaviorally informed messaging did not result in a significantly higher response than usual content.

Meaning  Text messaging offers a low-cost alternative to outbound telephone calls, but additional efforts are needed to increase vaccine uptake.

Abstract

Importance  COVID-19 vaccine uptake among urban populations remains low.

Objective  To evaluate whether text messaging with outbound or inbound scheduling and behaviorally informed content might increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Design, Setting, and Participants  This randomized clinical trial with a factorial design was conducted from April 29 to July 6, 2021, in an urban academic health system. The trial comprised 16 045 patients at least 18 years of age in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with at least 1 primary care visit in the past 5 years, or a future scheduled primary care visit within the next 3 months, who were unresponsive to prior outreach. The study was prespecified in the trial protocol, and data were obtained from the intent-to-treat population.

Interventions  Eligible patients were randomly assigned in a 1:20:20 ratio to (1) outbound telephone call only by call center, (2) text message and outbound telephone call by call center to those who respond, or (3) text message, with patients instructed to make an inbound telephone call to a hotline. Patients in groups 2 and 3 were concurrently randomly assigned in a 1:1:1:1 ratio to receive different content: standard messaging, clinician endorsement (eg, “Dr. XXX recommends”), scarcity (“limited supply available”), or endowment framing (“We have reserved a COVID-19 vaccine appointment for you”).

Main Outcomes and Measures  The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who completed the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine within 1 month, according to the electronic health record. Secondary outcomes were the completion of the first dose within 2 months and completion of the vaccination series within 2 months of initial outreach. Additional outcomes included the percentage of patients with invalid cell phone numbers (wrong number or nontextable), no response to text messaging, the percentage of patients scheduled for the vaccine, text message responses, and the number of telephone calls made by the access center. Analysis was on an intention-to-treat basis.

Results  Among the 16 045 patients included, the mean (SD) age was 36.9 (11.1) years; 9418 (58.7%) were women; 12 869 (80.2%) had commercial insurance, and 2283 (14.2%) were insured by Medicaid; 8345 (52.0%) were White, 4706 (29.3%) were Black, and 967 (6.0%) were Hispanic or Latino. At 1 month, 14 of 390 patients (3.6% [95% CI, 1.7%-5.4%]) in the outbound telephone call–only group completed 1 vaccine dose, as did 243 of 7890 patients (3.1% [95% CI, 2.7%-3.5%]) in the text plus outbound call group (absolute difference, −0.5% [95% CI, −2.4% to 1.4%]; P = .57) and 253 of 7765 patients (3.3% [95% CI, 2.9%-3.7%]) in the text plus inbound call group (absolute difference, −0.3% [95% CI, −2.2% to 1.6%]; P = .72). Among the 15 655 patients receiving text messaging, 118 of 3889 patients (3.0% [95% CI, 2.5%-3.6%]) in the standard messaging group completed 1 vaccine dose, as did 135 of 3920 patients (3.4% [95% CI, 2.9%-4.0%]) in the clinician endorsement group (absolute difference, 0.4% [95% CI, −0.4% to 1.2%]; P = .31), 100 of 3911 patients (2.6% [95% CI, 2.1%-3.1%]) in the scarcity group (absolute difference, −0.5% [95% CI, −1.2% to 0.3%]; P = .20), and 143 of 3935 patients (3.6% [95% CI, 3.0%-4.2%]) in the endowment group (absolute difference, 0.6% [95% CI, −0.2% to 1.4%]; P = .14).

Conclusions and Relevance  There was no detectable increase in vaccination uptake among patients receiving text messaging compared with telephone calls only or behaviorally informed message content.

Trial Registration  ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04834726

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CME Disclosure Statement: Unless noted, all individuals in control of content reported no relevant financial relationships. If applicable, all relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.

Article Information

Accepted for Publication: April 25, 2022.

Published: June 13, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.16649

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2022 Mehta SJ et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Shivan J. Mehta, MD, MBA, MSHP, 3600 Civic Center Blvd, 8W-206, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (shivan.mehta@pennmedicine.upenn.edu).

Author Contributions: Dr Mehta had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: Mehta, Mallozzi, Shaw, Vandertuyn, Balachandran, Kopinsky, Sevinc, Johnson, Ward, Rosin, Asch.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Mehta, Shaw, Reitz, McDonald, Ward, Park, Snider.

Drafting of the manuscript: Mehta, Reitz, McDonald, Sevinc.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Mallozzi, Shaw, Vandertuyn, Balachandran, Kopinsky, Johnson, Ward, Park, Snider, Rosin, Asch.

Statistical analysis: Shaw, Reitz, McDonald, Park.

Administrative, technical, or material support: Mehta, Mallozzi, Reitz, McDonald, Vandertuyn, Balachandran, Kopinsky, Sevinc, Johnson, Ward, Park, Rosin.

Supervision: Mehta.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Mehta reported receiving grants from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health during the conduct of the study and personal fees from the American Gastroenterological Association and Guardant Health outside the submitted work. Dr Shaw reported receiving nonfinancial support from Inovio outside the submitted work; and having a patent owned by the University of Pennsylvania that was licensed by Novartis. Dr Asch reported being a partner and part owner of VAL Health; and receiving personal fees from the American Association for Physician Leadership, North American Center for Continuing Medical Education LLC, and Deloitte outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Funding/Support: This trial was funded by the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Dr Mehta was supported by grant K08CA234326 from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Data Sharing Statement: See Supplement 3.

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