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

Nature Human Behaviour volume 9, pages 1077–1078 (2025)Cite this article

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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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Fig. 1: Effects of different text messages on vaccination uptake rate.

References

  1. 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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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 9, 1077–1078 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02166-w

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