Open AccessA 680,000-person megastudy of nudges to encourage vaccination in pharmacies
Author(s) -
Katherine L. Milkman,
Linnea Gandhi,
Mitesh S. Patel,
Heather N. Graci,
Dena M. Gromet,
Hung S. Ho,
Joseph S. Kay,
Timothy W. Lee,
Jake Rothschild,
Jonathan E. Bogard,
Ilana Brody,
Christopher F. Chabris,
Edward H. Chang,
Gretchen B. Chapman,
Jennifer Dannals,
Noah J. Goldstein,
Amir Goren,
Hal E. Hershfield,
Alex Hirsch,
Jillian Hmurovic,
Samantha Horn,
Dean Karlan,
Ariella Kristal,
Cait Lamberton,
Michelle N. Meyer,
Allison H. Oakes,
Maurice E. Schweitzer,
Maheen Shermohammed,
Joachim Talloen,
Caleb Warren,
Ashley V. Whillans,
Kuldeep N. Yadav,
Julian Jake Zlatev,
Ron Berman,
Chalanda N. Evans,
Rahul Ladhania,
Jens Ludwig,
Nina Mažar,
Sendhil Mullainathan,
Christopher K. Snider,
Jann Spiess,
Eli Tsukayama,
Lyle Ungar,
Christophe Van den Bulte,
Kevin G. Volpp,
Angela Duckworth
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2115126119
Subject(s) - pharmacy , nudge theory , vaccination , intervention (counseling) , medicine , family medicine , psychology , nursing , social psychology , immunology
Significance Encouraging vaccination is a pressing policy problem. Our megastudy with 689,693 Walmart pharmacy customers demonstrates that text-based reminders can encourage pharmacy vaccination and establishes what kinds of messages work best. We tested 22 different text reminders using a variety of different behavioral science principles to nudge flu vaccination. Reminder texts increased vaccination rates by an average of 2.0 percentage points (6.8%) over a business-as-usual control condition. The most-effective messages reminded patients that a flu shot was waiting for them and delivered reminders on multiple days. The top-performing intervention included two texts 3 d apart and stated that a vaccine was “waiting for you.” Forecasters failed to anticipate that this would be the best-performing treatment, underscoring the value of testing.