Can reminder messages improve HPV vaccination rates?

The use of autodialer centralized reminder and recall (C-R/R) messages from state immunization information systems has been seen to raise the rate of childhood vaccination. Whether a similar tactic would have an impact on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates has remained unstudied. A new study in Pediatrics examines the potential impact.¹

Investigators ran a 4-arm pragmatic randomized controlled trial in New York and Colorado. Practices were randomly selected and within each practice patients aged 11 to 17.9 years who had not yet completed the HPV vaccine series were randomly assigned to receive 0, 1, 2, or 3 autodialer C-R/R messages for each vaccine dose.

In New York, the vaccine initiation rates were 37.0% to 37.4% and had completion rates that ranged between 29.1% and 30.1%. No significant difference was seen across the study arms. In Colorado, the initiation rates ranged from 31.2% to 33.5% and completion rates were 27.0% to 27.8%. There was a slightly higher initiation rate after 1 reminder when compared with none. After adjusting, the vaccine initiation and completion rates in Colorado were slightly higher for 1 and 3 C-R/R messages.

Autodialer C-R/R did lead to slightly increased HPV vaccination rates in Colorado, but the overall study results indicate that using such messages may not be as successful with HPV vaccination as they are with other vaccines.

References:

1.    Szilagyi P, Albertin C, Gurfinkel D, et al. Effect of state immunization information system centralized reminder and recall on HPV vaccination rates. Pediatrics. 2020;145(5):e20192689. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-2689