Work

Reminders, but not monetary incentives, increase COVID-19 booster uptake

Year: 2023

Type: article

Study designs: Randomized Controlled Trial, Clinical Trial

Abstract: Despite substantially decreasing the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, COVID-19 booster vaccination rates remain low around the world. A key question for public health agencies is how to increase booster vaccination rates, particularly among high-risk groups. We conducted a large preregistered randomized controlled trial (with 57,893 study subjects) in a county health system in northern California to test the impact of personal reminder messages and small financial incentives of $25 on booster vaccination rates. We found that reminders increased booster vaccination rates within 2 wk by 0.86 percentage points ( P = 0.000) or nearly 33% off the control mean of 2.65%. Monetary incentives had no additional impact on vaccination rates. The results highlight the potential of low-cost targeted messages, but not small financial incentives, to increase booster vaccination rates.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2302725120

Authors: Tom Y. Chang, Mireille Jacobson, Manisha Shah, Matthew Kopetsky, Rajiv Pramanik, Samir B. Shah

Institutions: University of Southern California, University of California, Berkeley, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, Contra Costa Health Services

Language: English

Topic: Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy

Subfield: Health

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab