The Effect of a Planning Prompt on Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Rates

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania (Other)
• Overall Status: Completed
• CT.gov ID: NCT01207232
• Collaborator: Harvard University (Other), Yale University (Other), Stanford University (Other)
• Enrollment: 3,272
• Location: 1
• Arms: 3
• Duration (Months): 6
• Patients Per Site Per Month: 547.2

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

The investigators conducted a 3-arm randomized controlled trial to test whether a low-cost planning intervention could increase influence vaccination rates.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Seasonal Influenza	Behavioral: Planning Prompt; Behavioral: Control Condition	N/A

Detailed Description

Seasonal influenza causes 20,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Past psychology research has demonstrated that prompting people to form an implementation plan of the form, "When situation x arises, I will implement response y," increases attainment of desired goals because the desired behavior is linked to a concrete future moment. This type of planning prompt is a "nudge" in the direction of desired behavior that can be implemented at minimal expense and does not restrict individual autonomy. We conducted a 3-arm randomized controlled trial to test whether a low-cost planning intervention could increase influence vaccination rates. We show that planning prompts can be successfully applied to improve health behaviors.

Study Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Actual Enrollment: 3272 participants
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single (Participant)
• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Official Title: The Effect of a Planning Prompt on Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Rates
• Study Start Date: Oct 1, 2009
• Actual Primary Completion Date: Nov 1, 2009
• Actual Study Completion Date: Apr 1, 2010

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Time Plan Condition A basic reminder mailing prompted each subject to write down a planned date and time for getting their flu shot.	Behavioral: Planning Prompt; A prompt to write down a planned date (or date and time) for getting a flu shot
Experimental: Date Plan Condition A basic reminder mailing prompted each subject to write down a planned date for getting their flu shot.	Behavioral: Planning Prompt; A prompt to write down a planned date (or date and time) for getting a flu shot
Active Comparator: Control Condition A basic reminder mailing prompted each subject to receive a flu shot.	Behavioral: Control Condition; A basic reminder mailing prompted each subject to get their flu shot.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

1. Receipt of 2009 Seasonal Influenza Vaccination [up to 30 weeks]

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years and Older
• Sexes Eligible for Study: All
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Inclusion Criteria:

• Vaccine indications according to fall 2009 CDC criteria (age >= 50 or chronic disease

• Employee at partner corporation that implemented the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	United States	19104

Sponsors and Collaborators

• University of Pennsylvania
• Harvard University
• Yale University
• Stanford University

Investigators

• Principal Investigator: Katherine L Milkman, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01207232
• Other Study ID Numbers: 810589-1
• First Posted: Sep 22, 2010
• Last Update Posted: Sep 22, 2010
• Last Verified: Sep 1, 2010

• Keywords provided by , ,: seasonal influenza; behavioral economics; implementation intentions; planning prompt; nudge
• Additional relevant MeSH terms: Influenza, Human

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Sep 22, 2010