Tailoring of Vaccine-Focused Messages: Moral Foundations

Summary

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.

Conditions

• Childhood Vaccinations

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Baseline Survey

The baseline survey contains questions regarding level of existing vaccine hesitancy (Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) short scale and HealthStyles questions), demographic information, and intent to vaccinate their children. All study surveys will be completed on an electronic device.

BEHAVIORAL

Pre-intervention Survey

Participants will be contacted two weeks after completing the baseline survey to answer questions about their moral beliefs. The survey will include questions form the Moral Foundations Questionnaire as well as additional questions. An algorithm will calculate the participant's moral matrix based on answers to these questions.

BEHAVIORAL

Morally Congruent Message

Intervention messages consist of four short paragraphs. The first three focus on how getting vaccinated helps uphold specific moral foundations. The fourth summarizes the contents of the prior paragraphs. Participants randomized to the morally congruent arm will receive a vaccine-related message developed to appeal to their three most-emphasized moral foundations. The first paragraph focuses on the most emphasized foundation, the second on the third-most emphasized, and the third on the second-most emphasized.

BEHAVIORAL

Morally Non-Congruent Message

Intervention messages consist of four short paragraphs. The first three focus on how getting vaccinated helps uphold specific moral foundations. Participants randomized to the morally non-congruent arm will receive a vaccine-related message developed to appeal to their three least-emphasized moral foundations. The first paragraph focuses on the least emphasized foundation, the second on the third-least emphasized, and the third on the second-least emphasized.

BEHAVIORAL

Control Message

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

BEHAVIORAL

Post-Intervention Survey

Immediately after reading the randomly assigned message participants will complete a follow-up survey assessing level of existing vaccine hesitancy (PACV short scale and HealthStyles questions) and intent to vaccinate their children.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Emory University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Saad B Omer, BBS, MPH, PhD · Emory University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-08-31

Primary Completion

2016-10-31

Completion

2016-10-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations