Increasing the intent to receive a pandemic influenza vaccination: Testing the impact of theory-based messages
Increasing the intent to receive a pandemic influenza vaccination: Testing the impact of theory-based messages
Objective: Vaccination is an effective preventive measure to reduce influenza transmission, especially important in a pandemic. Despite the messages encouraging vaccination during the last pandemic, uptake remained low (37.6% in clinical risk groups). This study investigated the effect of different types of messages regarding length, content type, and framing on vaccination intention.
Method: An online experiment was conducted in February 2015. A representative sample of 1424 people living in England read a mock newspaper article about a novel influenza pandemic before being randomised to one of four conditions: standard Department of Health (DoH) (long message) and three brief theory-based messages - an abridged version of the standard DoH and two messages additionally targeting pandemic influenza severity and vaccination benefits (framed as risk-reducing or health-enhancing, respectively). Intention to be vaccinated and potential mediators were measured.
Results: The shortened DoH message increased vaccination intention more than the longer one, by increasing perceived susceptibility, anticipated regret and perceived message personal relevance while lowering perceived costs, despite the longer one being rated as slightly more credible. Intention to be vaccinated was not improved by adding information on severity and benefits, and the health-enhancing message was not more effective than the risk-reducing.
Conclusion: A briefer message resulted in greater intention to be vaccinated, whereas emphasising the severity of pandemic influenza and the benefits of vaccination did not. Future campaigns should consider using brief theoretically-based messages, targeting knowledge about influenza and precautionary measures, perceived susceptibility to pandemic influenza, and the perceived efficacy and reduced costs of vaccination.
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Godinho, Cristina A.
66d7abf4-216e-4259-a42e-010d156b23ae
Yardley, Lucy
64be42c4-511d-484d-abaa-f8813452a22e
Marcu, Afrodita
25ba37d2-9068-4c58-8527-fb799152add3
Mowbray, Fiona
0a9e37a7-06c7-4926-95cb-af2d1eb22157
Beard, Emma
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Michie, Susan
47e0a907-79cb-47d5-b5a9-82d2afe1747a
Godinho, Cristina A.
66d7abf4-216e-4259-a42e-010d156b23ae
Yardley, Lucy
64be42c4-511d-484d-abaa-f8813452a22e
Marcu, Afrodita
25ba37d2-9068-4c58-8527-fb799152add3
Mowbray, Fiona
0a9e37a7-06c7-4926-95cb-af2d1eb22157
Beard, Emma
1846e1fc-0236-4ea3-bf38-32b356a533a9
Michie, Susan
47e0a907-79cb-47d5-b5a9-82d2afe1747a
Godinho, Cristina A., Yardley, Lucy, Marcu, Afrodita, Mowbray, Fiona, Beard, Emma and Michie, Susan
(2016)
Increasing the intent to receive a pandemic influenza vaccination: Testing the impact of theory-based messages.
Preventive Medicine, .
(doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.05.025).
(PMID:27235605)
Abstract
Objective: Vaccination is an effective preventive measure to reduce influenza transmission, especially important in a pandemic. Despite the messages encouraging vaccination during the last pandemic, uptake remained low (37.6% in clinical risk groups). This study investigated the effect of different types of messages regarding length, content type, and framing on vaccination intention.
Method: An online experiment was conducted in February 2015. A representative sample of 1424 people living in England read a mock newspaper article about a novel influenza pandemic before being randomised to one of four conditions: standard Department of Health (DoH) (long message) and three brief theory-based messages - an abridged version of the standard DoH and two messages additionally targeting pandemic influenza severity and vaccination benefits (framed as risk-reducing or health-enhancing, respectively). Intention to be vaccinated and potential mediators were measured.
Results: The shortened DoH message increased vaccination intention more than the longer one, by increasing perceived susceptibility, anticipated regret and perceived message personal relevance while lowering perceived costs, despite the longer one being rated as slightly more credible. Intention to be vaccinated was not improved by adding information on severity and benefits, and the health-enhancing message was not more effective than the risk-reducing.
Conclusion: A briefer message resulted in greater intention to be vaccinated, whereas emphasising the severity of pandemic influenza and the benefits of vaccination did not. Future campaigns should consider using brief theoretically-based messages, targeting knowledge about influenza and precautionary measures, perceived susceptibility to pandemic influenza, and the perceived efficacy and reduced costs of vaccination.
Text
__soton.ac.uk_UDE_PersonalFiles_Users_vjh1y07_mydocuments_Lucy_CV and Refs_papers_2016_Pandemic flu_quant paper.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 23 May 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 25 May 2016
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 395583
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/395583
ISSN: 0091-7435
PURE UUID: b440a33d-d9fd-4afc-8611-f7568143b2a6
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Date deposited: 01 Jun 2016 14:20
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:37
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Contributors
Author:
Cristina A. Godinho
Author:
Afrodita Marcu
Author:
Emma Beard
Author:
Susan Michie
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