Clinical trial NCT04728594: Emails Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination Among Healthcare Workers
Official title: Evaluation of an Email Intervention Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination Among Healthcare Workers
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Vaccination Refusal
Communication
Keywords: Immunization
Persuasive Communication
Electronic Mail
Economics, Behavioral
Psychology
Lead sponsor: Geisinger Clinic
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-01-28
Enrollment: 9566
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: 1 x 3 design
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: In this evaluation, two versions of emails will be sent to Geisinger employees who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19. A delayed-contact control group will be emailed after a delay of at least two days. The researchers hypothesize that either of the emails - which use content informed by behavioral nudge theory - will lead to more COVID-19 vaccinations than the delayed-contact control group.

Detailed description: The researchers aim to evaluate the effectiveness of email reminders in promoting COVID-19 vaccinations among Geisinger employees. The project will compare two emails, which will vary in the subject line and email content. Both emails will test different approaches that draw from principles in behavioral science: social proof, reframing, and scarcity. Employees receiving these emails will be compared with employees in a delayed-contact group, who will not receive emails. Employees in the control group will later receive one of the emails.The responses to the emails will help determine the communications later sent to the control group.

All emails will ask recipients if they want to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. If they click on a hyperlink indicating yes, they will be forwarded to an online registration and scheduling homepage. If they click on a hyperlink indicating no, they will be forwarded to an online questionnaire surveying people about their main reason for declining the vaccine at this time. The questionnaire will automatically present information intended to assuage the specific concern that people endorse, followed by a hyperlink to the scheduling site.

The data will be analyzed with logistic regression models with the control group as the reference group, to compare the two email conditions versus the control group. This set of analyses will only be conducted for scheduling a vaccination appointment as opposed to email engagement outcomes (e.g., number of emails opened), which will not be applicable for the control group. A second set of logistic regression models predicting scheduling a vaccination appointment and email engagement will also be run, comparing the two email conditions against each other. The data will be examined two days later (to help decide which email to send to the delayed-control group) and four days later (when the policy for employee vaccination will change, making the content of the email irrelevant).

Update: The researchers looked at 3 days of data - as the emails to the delayed contact group were only sent at that time - and 4 days of data when the policy for employee vaccinations changed.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Employees at Geisinger Health System who have not gotten a COVID-19 vaccination

Exclusion Criteria:

* None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Number of Employees Who Scheduled Vaccination Appointments After 3 Days
timeFrame: 3 days
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Number of Employees Who Opened Emails After 3 Days
timeFrame: 3 days
measure: Number of Employees Who Clicked Scheduling Links After 3 Days
timeFrame: 3 days
Other outcomes:
measure: Number of Employees Who Scheduled Vaccination Appointments Until Policy Change (4 Days)
timeFrame: 4 days
measure: Number of Employees Who Opened Emails Until Policy Change (4 Days)
timeFrame: 4 days
measure: Number of Employees Who Clicked the Scheduling Link Until Policy Change (4 Days)
timeFrame: 4 days
Locations:
city: Danville
country: United States
facility: Geisinger
state: Pennsylvania
Study officials:
affiliation: Geisinger Clinic
name: Michelle M Meyer, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Santos HC, Goren A, Chabris CF, Meyer MN. Effect of Targeted Behavioral Science Messages on COVID-19 Vaccination Registration Among Employees of a Large Health System: A Randomized Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Jul 1;4(7):e2118702. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.18702.