Non-integrated Costs Increase Effectiveness of Incentives

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The investigators will test the hypothesis that the control (no incentive) condition will have the lowest vaccination rate, the main task condition will have a significantly higher vaccination rate while the indirect condition will have the highest vaccination rate. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the three message conditions and their vaccination records obtained from the university Occupational Health Department.

Detailed Description
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The investigators will send e-mails to a complete mailing list of faculty and staff at a university. Each recipient will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: control, main task incentive or indirect incentive. Our main dependent variable will be whether or not participants decide to get vaccinated. The investigators will obtain their actual vaccination records from the university Occupational Health Department. Within the e-mail message, participants will indicate whether or not they intend to get vaccinated. Intention serves as an indirect dependent outcome. Upon clicking to indicate their intention, participants are redirected to a page which gives further instructions on how to proceed. Participants who vaccinate will be asked to complete a brief follow-up questionnaire to evaluate their experience with vaccination and (for those offered and incentive) to provide contact information to receive their payment.

Official Title
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Non-integrated Costs Increase Effectiveness of Incentives

Conditions
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Control - No Incentive for Flu Vaccine, Direct Incentive, Indirect Incentive

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Email Message
* Behavioral: Incentive for Vaccination
* Behavioral: Incentive for completing a short survey


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Must be faculty or staff at Rutgers University. Exclusion Criteria: -

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 100 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Active Comparator: Control<br>Participants will receive an E-mail Message encouraging them to get vaccinated, and asking them to indicate if they intend to do so and to complete a brief questionnaire after vaccination. | Behavioral: Email Message<br>* Participants will randomly receive an e-mail message about the availability of free flu vaccines.<br>|
| Experimental: Direct Incentive<br>Participants will receive an E-mail Message encouraging them to get vaccinated, and asking them to indicate if they intend to do so and to complete a brief questionnaire after vaccination. They are offered an Incentive for Vaccination ($5 Amazon Gift Card). | Behavioral: Email Message<br>* Participants will randomly receive an e-mail message about the availability of free flu vaccines.<br>Behavioral: Incentive for Vaccination<br>* $5 gift card offered for vaccination<br>|
| Experimental: Indirect Incentive<br>Participants will receive an E-mail Message encouraging them to get vaccinated, and asking them to indicate if they intend to do so and to complete a brief questionnaire after vaccination. They are offered an Incentive for completing a short survey ($5 Amazon Gift Card). | Behavioral: Email Message<br>* Participants will randomly receive an e-mail message about the availability of free flu vaccines.<br>Behavioral: Incentive for completing a short survey<br>* $5 gift card offered for completing s short survey after one gets vaccinated<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Number of people vaccinated | Measure the number of people who got vaccinated in the Fall 2017 semester at a large state university. We will collect vaccination records from the university Occupational Health Department | Up to 5 months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intention to get vaccinated | Participants will receive an e-mail with our main treatment manipulations. In each e-mail they will be able to indicate whether or not they want to get vaccinated. We will use this measure as a second dependent variable. | Up to 5 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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incentives, field study, vaccination