Text Message Reminders Effective in Raising Flu Vaccination Rates

Flu vaccines are life savers. For example, during the 2019-2020 influenza season, vaccination was estimated to have prevented over 1.4 million illnesses, nearly 1 million medical visits, 9,600 hospitalizations and 82 deaths among young children. A new study, “Text Message Reminders for the Second Dose of Influenza Vaccine for Children,” in the September 2022 Pediatrics (published online Monday, Aug. 15) finds a simple text message reminder can help raise full vaccination rates for the flu vaccine. During the 2017-18 and 2018-19 influenza seasons, researchers ran a randomized clinical trial that included 2,086 parents in 50 primary care offices across 24 states and found that text message reminders were effective in promoting increased and more timely delivery of the second dose of influenza vaccine for children in need of two doses that season. Practices were primarily part of the American Academy of Pediatrics practice-based research network, Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS). Caregivers in the study received personalized, scheduled text messages delivered in either English or Spanish based upon the caregiver’s preferred language that included reminders about the vaccine and educational information about the importance of the second dose. As a result, 83.8% received the second dose by season end, compared to 80.9% in a control group receiving no text reminders. The families that received the texts also got the second dose earlier—62.4% by day 42 compared to 55.7% who didn’t receive texts. Researchers concluded that vaccine text reminder programs work, but that more research is needed to assess how text message reminders could be broadly implemented in practice settings serving children.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.