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‘Top of queue’ text messages increased COVID-19 vaccine uptake in England – Nature

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Nature Human Behaviour (2025)
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Two nationwide randomized controlled trials in England with over 4 million participants found that text messages that highlighted that people had reached the ‘top of the queue’ increased COVID-19 vaccination rates. As a result, this ‘top of queue’ message was subsequently rolled out as the standard text reminder.
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Jacobson Vann, J. C., Jacobson, R. M., Coyne-Beasley, T., Asafu-Adjei, J. K. & Szilagyi, P. G. Patient reminder and recall interventions to improve immunization rates. Cochrane Database System. Rev. 1, CD003941 (2018). This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness of various reminder and recall interventions in increasing vaccine uptake.
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Milkman, K. et al. A megastudy of text-based nudges encouraging patients to get vaccinated at an upcoming doctor’s appointment. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2101165118 (2021). This paper reports that text message reminders for influenza vaccination were more effective when the vaccine doses were framed as being reserved for the text recipient.
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Brewer, N. et al. Increasing vaccination: putting psychological science into action. Psychol. Sci. Public Interest 18, 149–207 (2017). This article outlines three general propositions from psychology that can help to understand and increase vaccine uptake.
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This is a summary of: Behrendt, H. et al. Nationwide demonstration of improved COVID-19 vaccination uptake through behavioural reminders. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02165-x (2025).
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‘Top of queue’ text messages increased COVID-19 vaccine uptake in England. Nat Hum Behav (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02166-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02166-w
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Nature Human Behaviour (Nat Hum Behav)
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