Researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Medical Center studied the impact of text message reminders for the second dose of influenza vaccine required for many young children to protect them against the virus.
The findings showed that sending text message reminders both increased receipt of the second dose of the vaccine by the end of the season as well as brought children in sooner to be vaccinated.
When educational information on the importance of the second dose of influenza vaccine was embedded into the text messages there was an even greater effect compared both with conventional text messages that only told families when and where to go as well as with written reminder only.
