Using Text Messages to Boost COVID-19 Vaccine Booking Rate

August 11, 2023 updated by: Hannah Behrendt, The Behavioural Insights Team

Using Text Messages to Boost COVID-19 Vaccination Appointment Booking and Vaccination Rates: A Randomised Controlled Field Trial.

This study is a nationwide randomised controlled trial (RCT) to test the impact of behavioural science-informed text messages notifying patients of their eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine on vaccination rates.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1825937

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • (i) satisfying the age criteria as defined above;
  • (ii) recorded in the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS);
  • (iii) with a valid mobile phone number;
  • (iv) who had not already received or been invited for the COVID-19 vaccine via NIMS at the time of the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participants with invalid phone numbers

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Control
Received the text message "You are now eligible for your free NHS Covid-19 vaccine. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Control
Control vaccination eligibility reminder text message
Experimental: Simple
Received the text message "You can now book your free NHS Covid-19 vaccine. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages
Behaviourally-informed content in vaccination eligibility reminder text messages
Experimental: Reserved
Received the text message "Your free NHS Covid-19 vaccine is waiting for you. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages
Behaviourally-informed content in vaccination eligibility reminder text messages
Experimental: Top of queue
Received the text message "You've reached the top of the queue and are a priority for getting a free NHS Covid-19 vaccine. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages
Behaviourally-informed content in vaccination eligibility reminder text messages
Experimental: Join the millions
Received the text message "You are now eligible for your free NHS Covid-19 vaccine. Join the millions who have already had theirs. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages
Behaviourally-informed content in vaccination eligibility reminder text messages
Experimental: Convenience
Received the text message "You are now eligible for your free NHS Covid-19 vaccine. Choose a time and place that suits you. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages
Behaviourally-informed content in vaccination eligibility reminder text messages
Experimental: Protection against virus
Received the text message "You are now eligible for your free NHS Covid-19 vaccine. Getting vaccinated is the best protection against coronavirus. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages
Behaviourally-informed content in vaccination eligibility reminder text messages
Experimental: Protect you and those close to you
Received the text message "You are now eligible for your free NHS Covid-19 vaccine. Getting the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and those close to you against coronavirus. Please book yours now at [LINK] or by calling 119."
Behavioral: Behavioural science-informed text messages
Behaviourally-informed content in vaccination eligibility reminder text messages

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Booking rate within 72 hours
Time Frame: 72 hours
The proportion of first dose vaccination appointments booked through the NHS National Booking System within 72 hours (inclusive) of the text message being sent
72 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Vaccination rate within 14 days
Time Frame: 14 days
The proportion of first dose vaccinations received within 14 days (inclusive) of the text message being sent
14 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

The Behavioural Insights Team

Collaborators

Public Health England
Department of Health and Social Care
NHS England and NHS Improvement

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Hannah Behrendt, PhD, The Behavioural Insights Team

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 26, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 29, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

May 10, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 11, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 11, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

August 15, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 15, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 11, 2023

Last Verified

August 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2021035

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

All data requests should be submitted to NHS England and NHS Improvement (the data controller) for consideration. Access to the raw anonymised data may be granted for non-commercial research at the discretion of NHS England and NHS Improvement. Further information can be obtained from the corresponding author at hannah.behrendt@bi.team.

Custom code that supports the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author upon request.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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