Do social media interventions increase vaccine uptake?

Frontiers in Public Health

Public Health

Chiara Greco¹  Maria Elisabetta Baldassarre²  Nicola Laforgia²  Francesca Maria Grosso³  Silvia Greco⁴  Federica Di Mauro⁵  Roberto Grosso⁶  Antonio Di Mauro⁷ 

[1] Department of Biomedical Science and Human Oncology, Hygiene and Preventive Medicine (Public Health), Aldo Moro University of Bari, Bari, Italy;Department of Biomedical Science and Human Oncology, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Aldo Moro University of Bari, Bari, Italy;Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Postgraduate School of Public Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy;Department of Pediatrics, Gabriele d'Annunzio University of Chieti and Pescara, Chieti, Italy;Department of Prevention, Local Health Authority of Bari, Bari, Italy;Pediatric Primary Care, National Pediatric Health Care System, Bari, Italy;Pediatric Primary Care, National Pediatric Health Care System, Margherita di Savoia, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Italy;

关键词: vaccine hesitancy;    COVID-19;    social media;    vaccine campaign;    primary care setting;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2023.1077953

 received in 2022-10-23, accepted in 2023-05-31,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionThe Italian mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign has included children aged 5–11 years as part of the target population since December 2021. One of the biggest challenges to vaccine uptake was vaccine hesitancy among parents and children's caregivers. Primary care pediatricians (PCPs), as the first point of contact between the National Health Service (NHS) and parents/caretakers, initiated various communication strategies to tackle this hesitancy. This study aims to evaluate the impact of a PCP-led social media intervention and a digital reminder service (DRS) on parental hesitancy regarding vaccinating their 5–11-year-old children against COVID-19.MethodsA prospective cohort study was designed, and the chosen target populations were parents and caretakers of children aged 5–11 years. Two PCP cohorts were recruited. The first group received a social media intervention and a DRS; while the second group did not. Both cohorts had access to traditional face-to-face and telephone-based counseling. The vaccination coverage rate in the two groups was evaluated.ResultsA total of 600 children were enrolled. The exposed cohort (277 patients) received social media intervention, DRS, and counseling options (face-to-face and telephone-based), whereas the non-exposed cohort (323 patients) received only counseling options. In total, 89 patients from the exposed cohort did not receive any dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (32.5%), 165 were fully immunized (59.5%), and 23 received only one dose (8.5%). A total of 150 non-exposed patients did not receive any dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (47%), 147 were fully immunized (45.5%), and 24 only received one dose (7.4%). The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (chi square = 11.5016; p = 0.0006).ConclusionSocial media and DRS interventions had a positive impact on vaccine uptake and may be helpful in tackling vaccine hesitancy. Better-designed studies are needed to corroborate these findings.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Grosso, Baldassarre, Grosso, Di Mauro, Greco, Greco, Laforgia and Di Mauro.