Promoting Flu Vaccination Through a Mobile Wellness Program

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The investigators design a 6-week messaging campaign aimed at promoting flu vaccination among fully insured members of a national payer that participate in a wellness program offered by the insurer through a mobile app. Outcomes measured will include uptake in flu vaccination rate as measured by the insurer and engagement with the campaign through the app. The goal of the research is to assess the effectiveness of pervasive computing messaging in promoting preventative care treatments such as flu shots. An additional goal is that of quantifying the importance of emphasizing incentives to increase efficacy of the messages.

Official Title
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Promoting Flu Vaccination Through a Mobile Wellness Program

Conditions
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Not Condition-specific

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: In-app and push notification mobile messages


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: belongs to fully insured population continuous health coverage between January 1, 2015 and June 1, 2016 has downloaded and installed the wellness platform app Exclusion Criteria: has declined the messaging from the platform

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Salient<br>Messages in the salient arm highlight the number of incentives (points) received by getting a flu shot and recording it through the wellness program app. Additionally, messages mention that flu shots can be received at the pharmacy while picking up an Rx. Users in the arm are matched up with a second user from the same arm, randomly. For each pair, the messages are sent to both users at the same time within the specified time window. Such time is picked to be the day in which the first user is most likely to pick up an Rx from a pharmacy. | Behavioral: In-app and push notification mobile messages<br>* Short messages (100-250 characters) are to be delivered to a mobile app both by push notification (i.e., appearing on the phone dashboard like a text message if the user has allowed notifications from the app) and in-app messages (visible in the news feed of the wellness program app when the app is opened). Messages contain a short title (30 characters) and 2-3 lines of text in the body (30 characters each).<br>|
| Active Comparator: NonSalient<br>Messages in the non-salient arm highlight the benefits of getting vaccinated against flu, but make no mention of incentives received for getting vaccinated. Incentives would still be earned through the wellness program if the vaccination is recorded. Messages mention that flu shots can be received at the pharmacy while picking up an Rx. Users in the arm are matched up with a second user from the same arm, randomly. For each pair, the messages are sent to both users at the same time within the specified time window. Such time is picked to be the day in which the first user is most likely to pick up an Rx from a pharmacy | Behavioral: In-app and push notification mobile messages<br>* Short messages (100-250 characters) are to be delivered to a mobile app both by push notification (i.e., appearing on the phone dashboard like a text message if the user has allowed notifications from the app) and in-app messages (visible in the news feed of the wellness program app when the app is opened). Messages contain a short title (30 characters) and 2-3 lines of text in the body (30 characters each).<br>|
| No Intervention: Control<br>Users in this group will not receive any message promoting flu vaccination. Incentives would still be earned through the wellness program if the vaccination is recorded. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Increase in vaccination rate vs control | Increase in vaccination rate of anyone messaged relative to the control condition | Up to 1 week after the end of each of the three batches of the intervention (Oct 1/15/28 2016) | 
| Increase in vaccination rate of salient vs non-salient | Increase in vaccination rate of those who received salient incentives messages vs those who received generic messages | Up to 1 week after the end of each of the three batches of the intervention (Oct 1/15/28 2016) | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Decrease in medically attended flu events of messaged vs control | Decrease in observed flu rate for messaged users | Up to 1 week after the end of each of the three batches of the intervention (Oct 1/15/28 2016) | 
| Increase in reporting of flu vaccination through wellness app of salient vs non-salient | Increase in reporting vaccination through the wellness program app following messages | Up to 1 week after the end of each of the three batches of the intervention (Oct 1/15/28 2016) | 
| Increase in vaccination rate for users messaged within 2 days before of an expected rx pick-up. | Increase in vaccination rate of users messaged within 2 days before an expected Rx pick up from a pharmacy relative to their paired partners. | Up to 1 week after the end of each of the three batches of the intervention (Oct 1/15/28 2016) | 
| Increase in message open rate of Salient vs Non-salient arm | Increase in open rate of sent messages through the wellness program app of salient vs non salient arm | Up to 1 week after the end of each of the three batches of the intervention (Oct 1/15/28 2016) |