Focus on the non-health benefits of COVID-19 vaccination to convince people to get their booster

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-06-03 04:00

Australia; NSW; VIC

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Focusing on the non-health benefits of getting a COVID-19 booster could make vaccine messaging more persuasive, according to Australian research. The team recruited about 450 people to view different online COVID-19 booster vaccine messages; one that simply provided information about booster eligibility and four that incorporated different methods of persuasion - focusing the personal health benefits, the community health benefits, the 'personal agency' of taking control of your health, and the non-health benefits of vaccination such as access to travel. Surveying the participants on their vaccine beliefs and intentions after viewing the messages, the researchers say the non-health benefits message was most effective, while the personal agency message appeared ineffective.

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Journal/
conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Sydney, Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), The University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS)

Funder: MS, BB, and CK received funds from NSW Health (https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/) to conduct this research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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