Tailoring of Vaccine-Focused Messages: Moral Foundations

Emory University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Childhood Vaccinations

Treatments: Behavioral: Post-Intervention Survey; Behavioral: Morally Congruent Message; Behavioral: Control Message; Behavioral: Morally Non-Congruent Message; Behavioral: Pre-intervention Survey; Behavioral: Baseline Survey

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02851459

IRB00087211

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is the first phase of a trial examining decision making about vaccines. This phase tests the impact of targeted vaccine-focused health messages on vaccine beliefs held by parents of young children and pre-adolescents. The participant's vaccine beliefs will be assessed at baseline. Two weeks later, the participant's moral matrix will be assessed. A vaccine-related message that appeals to the individual's three most or least emphasized moral foundations will then be presented. Immediately afterwards, vaccine beliefs will be assessed to determine the impact of the message.

Full description

Vaccination of young children helps protect this population against a variety of diseases. Children are especially at risk for contraction of and complications from diseases due to their vulnerable immune systems. New evidence-based messages are needed to maintain and increase vaccination uptake among this group. An emphasis on different values is related to decisions parents make about vaccines. The purpose of this study is to develop, implement, and evaluate messages that focus on different aspects of values to impact vaccination attitudes among parents of young children.

Parents emphasize different moral foundations when deciding whether or not to vaccinate children. Based on this research, a messaging intervention with parents of children who are 12 years of age or younger will be conducted. These messages will aid in assessment of how different moral foundations impact attitudes towards vaccination and intent to vaccinate.

This study tests the impact of targeted vaccine-focused health messages on vaccine beliefs held by parents of young children and pre-adolescents. The participant's vaccine beliefs will be assessed at baseline. Two weeks later, the participant's moral matrix will be assessed. A vaccine-related message that appeals to the individual's three most or least emphasized moral foundations will then be presented. Immediately afterwards, vaccine beliefs will be assessed to determine the impact of the message.

Enrollment: 850 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 50 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Have at least one child ≤ 12 years of age
• Reside in the United States

Exclusion criteria

• Have previously participated in this study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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850 participants in 3 patient groups

Morally Congruent Message

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized to this arm will receive a vaccine-related message developed to appeal to their three most-emphasized moral foundations.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Post-Intervention Survey

Behavioral: Baseline Survey

Behavioral: Pre-intervention Survey

Behavioral: Morally Congruent Message

Morally Non-Congruent Message

Experimental group

Description:

Participants randomized to this arm will receive a vaccine-related message developed to appeal to their three least-emphasized moral foundations.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Post-Intervention Survey

Behavioral: Baseline Survey

Behavioral: Morally Non-Congruent Message

Behavioral: Pre-intervention Survey

Control Message

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Participants randomized to the control arm will be provided with a short passage about the costs and benefits of bird feeding.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Post-Intervention Survey

Behavioral: Control Message

Behavioral: Baseline Survey

Behavioral: Pre-intervention Survey