CLOSE MENU
A new study by Assistant Professor Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Affiliated Investigator Angela Parcesepe, Distinguished Professor Denis Nash, and colleagues from the CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH) examined whether theory-enhanced video messaging could boost COVID-19 vaccine uptake among under-vaccinated adults in the United States.
In a randomized controlled trial, over 1,400 adults who had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose but were overdue for another were assigned to receive either a short video based on attitudinal inoculation theory, a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) kernel video, or a standard public health message.
The results showed that vaccine uptake after four weeks was very low across all groups—only about 1.2% of participants got vaccinated during the study period—with no significant differences between the messaging strategies. Willingness to receive another vaccine dose also did not significantly differ by intervention arm or by whether participants had symptoms of anxiety or depression.
The findings illustrate the challenges of changing health behaviors through messaging alone, especially several years into the pandemic when public perceptions of COVID-19 risk have waned and trust in public health information is declining amidst the rise of poor quality health information and mistrust in traditional sources.
“While novel approaches like inoculation and CBT-informed messaging offer theoretical promise, more targeted and sustained interventions may be needed to effectively reduce vaccine hesitancy and boost vaccination rates in the current environment,” says Piltch-Loeb.
