Effectiveness and parental acceptability of social-networking interventions for promoting seasonal influenza vaccination among young children: a randomized control trial

Abstract

Background: Seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) coverage among young children remains low worldwide. Mobile social-networking applications such as WhatsApp Messenger are promising tools for health interventions.

Objective: This was a preliminary study to test the effectiveness and parental acceptability of social-networking intervention that sends weekly vaccination reminders and encourages exchange of SIV-related views and experience among mothers via WhatsApp discussion groups for promoting childhood SIV. The second objective was to examine the effect on mothers’ decision-making for childhood SIV of additionally introducing time pressure for vaccination decision-making using countdowns of the recommended vaccination timing.

Methods: Mothers of child(ren) aged 6-72 months were randomly allocated to Control, or one of two social-networking Intervention groups receiving vaccination reminders with (SNI/+TP) or without (SNI/-TP) a time pressure component via WhatsApp discussion groups at a ratio of 5:2:2. All participants first completed a baseline assessment. Both the SNI/-TP and SNI+TP groups subsequently received respective weekly vaccination reminders in Oct-Dec 2017, and participated in WhatsApp discussions about SIV moderated by a health professional. All participants completed a follow-up assessment in April-May 2018.

Results: A total of 174 (84.9%, 174/205), 57 (71.3%, 57/80) and 60 (75.0%, 60/80) who were allocated into the Control, SNI/-TP and SNI/+TP, respectively, completed the outcome assessment. The social-networking intervention significantly promoted mothers’ self-efficacy for taking children for SIV (SNI/-TP: OR=2.69 (1.07-6.79); SNI/+TP: OR=2.50 (1.13-5.55)), but did not result in significantly improved children’s SIV uptake. Moreover, after adjusting for mothers’ working status, introducing additional time pressure reduced the overall SIV uptake in children of working mothers (OR=0.27 (0.10-0.77)) but significantly increased the SIV uptake among children of mothers without a full-time job (OR=6.53 (1.87-22.82)). Most participants’ WhatsApp posts were about sharing experience/views (52.1%, 226/434) of which 44.7% (101/226) were categorized as negative such as their concerns over vaccine safety/side effects and effectiveness. Though participants shared predominantly negative experience/views about SIV at the beginning of the discussion, the moderator was able to encourage the discussion of more positive experience/views and more knowledge/information. Most Intervention group participants indicated willingness to receive the same interventions (94.0%, 110/117) and recommend the interventions to other mothers (87.2%, 102/117) in future.

Conclusions: Online information support can effectively promote mothers’ self-efficacy for taking children for SIV but may not alone be sufficient to address maternal concerns over SIV to achieve a positive vaccination decision. However, the active involvement of health professionals in online discussions can shape positive discussions about vaccination. Time pressure on decision-making interacts with maternal work status, facilitating vaccination uptake among mothers who may have more free time job but having the opposite effect among busier working mothers. Clinical Trial: HKUCTR-2250, www.HKUCTR.com