Despite continued evidence that flu season wreaks havoc on seniors, digital reminders like texts or emails aren’t really enough to move the needle on vaccine rates.
Two recent published studies evaluated the ability of digital reminders to motivate seniors to get flu shots and found they weren’t enough to overcome vaccine hesitancy in older adults.
A study of Danish seniors found that email reminders — the review described the messages as “nudges” — only led to an increase of 1% in vaccination uptake. Despite describing this as a “modest” improvement, the study authors acknowledged that the emails “did not translate into observable improvements in clinical outcomes.”
In the US, a separate study released Monday showed that neither texting nor messaging within patient portals influenced recipients to get a flu vaccine. While this could indicate that, more generally, a more interpersonal approach to outreach is needed, it also indicates a high level of skepticism around vaccination that e-blasts can’t overcome, the study authors theorized.
Within the US especially, a mix of misinformation and sporadic government communication about disease control has helped build a climate of uncertainty around vaccines, health experts have warned.
Although younger adults may not consider the flu to be dangerous, seniors who get the virus are at serious risk of dealing with escalating complications and hospitalization. Seniors are six times more likely to die from the flu, and at much greater risk for heart attack and stroke, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Despite varying skepticism about vaccination, new and more potent vaccines are being developed for diseases like the flu and RSV.
While these recent studies suggest it is a challenge to get more seniors to get vaccinated, prior research suggests that a majority of seniors did plan to get both a flu vaccine and an updated COVID vaccine at the start of this year, McKnight’s recently reported.
