Nudging for Vaccination : Efficacity and Acceptability Among Medical Students

Nudge is a set of methods aimed at helping people adopt a behavior by a gentle prompt, conscious or not. Classically, Nudges rely on heuristics and cognitive biases. These methods have been studied for years in social psychology and are receiving renewed attention since the awarding of the Nobel Prize in economics to Richard Thaler for his work on the application of Nudge to the economy.

Health professionals are very inadequately vaccinated (25 to 45% of the population). Some studies have shown that a Nudge based on intent implementation can significantly increase vaccination coverage. However, few studies evaluate the acceptability of Nudge or its application to health professionals.

The investigators sought to apply a Nudge based on availability heuristics to health professionals, in order to evaluate its effectiveness and terms of behavior adoption (influenza vaccination) and its acceptability.

The investigator's hypothesis is that Nudging is both effective and acceptable and that people found nudging more acceptable if they have been exposed to a nudge.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Influenza, Human; Vaccination; Sepsis
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Nudge; Other: vaccination form

Detailed Description

The investigators asked residents in general medicine to pass a questionnaire including a Nudge. This Nudge was the influenza vaccine prescription form accompanied on the back of the telephone numbers of the occupational health centers of the hospitals where residents were on probation.

The interns of the group "Nudge" saw at the end of their questionnaire the following statement: "If you are not vaccinated against the flu so far, you can get the form stapled to this questionnaire, it will allow you to get the vaccine in pharmacy. On the back you will also find practical information about immunization services at your place of training. " A group will receive an implemented Nudge questionnaire, a group will receive a questionnaire without Nudge and a control group will not be asked. (Phase 1) The 3 groups will receive a month later a questionnaire evaluating the effectiveness in terms of immunization coverage, and the acceptability of the Nudge, for oneself and for others. (Phase 2) The control group will only receive the Phase 2 questionnaire to control the Hawthorne effect.

The difference between the 3 groups will consist exclusively in the exposure of the participants to:

• A questionnaire on their attitude (opinion) towards vaccination;
• The numbers of the occupational health vaccination centers of their places of training;
• The flu vaccine prescription form, to be signed and stamped by a doctor (also already freely available on the internet)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 200
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Nice, France, 06000
    • UNSA

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: ADULT; OLDER_ADULT; CHILD
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• medical students

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Nudge; receiving nudge and form	Behavioral: Nudge; Influenza Vaccine Prescription Form accompanied on the back of telephone numbers of occupational health centers of different hospitals where interns are likely to be on probation.; Other: vaccination form; a form about vaccination
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: No nudge; receiving the same form without nudge (only questions about their opinion/attitudes about vaccination)	Other: vaccination form; a form about vaccination
NO_INTERVENTION: No intervention; receiving no nudge nor form

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Efficiency: vaccination rate	vaccination rate	1 month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
acceptability: scale	likert based acceptability form	One month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Adriaan Barbaroux
• Collaborators: Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis
• Investigators: Study Chair: Isabelle MILHABET, MD, PhD, LAPCOS-UCA

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Barbaroux A, Benoit L, Raymondie RA, Milhabet I. Nudging health care workers towards a flu shot: reminders are accepted but not necessarily effective. A randomized controlled study among residents in general practice in France. Fam Pract. 2021 Jul 28;38(4):410-415. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmab001.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): November 7, 2018
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): December 20, 2018
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): December 20, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 5, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 6, 2018
• First Posted (ACTUAL): December 7, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): January 10, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 9, 2019
• Last Verified: January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: acceptability; Nudge
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: RNA Virus Infections; Virus Diseases; Infections; Respiratory Tract Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Orthomyxoviridae Infections; Influenza, Human
• Other Study ID Numbers: ABarbaroux; 2018-A02939-46 (OTHER: ID RCB)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: all IPD that underlie results in a publication
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: starting 6 months after publication
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: OK for meta analysis, please contact directly Dr Adriaan BARBAROUX.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No