Catch the tweet to fight the flu: Using Twitter to promote flu shots on a college campus

Abstract

Objective: Over the 2018–2019 flu season we conducted a randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy of a Twitter campaign on vaccination rates. Concurrently we investigated potential interactions between digital social network structure and vaccination status. Participants: Undergratuates at a large midwestern public university were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 353) or control (n = 349) group. Methods: Vaccination data were collected via monthly surveys. Participant Twitter data were collected through the public-facing Twitter API. Intervention impact was assessed with logistic regression. Standard network science tools examined vaccination coverage over online social networks. Results: The campaign had no effect on vaccination outcome. Receiving a flu shot the prior year had a positive impact on participant vaccination. Evidence of an interaction between digital social network structure and vaccination status was detected. Conclusions: Social media campaigns may not be sufficient for increasing vaccination rates. There may be potential for social media campaigns that leverage network structure.

Keywords:

• Seasonal influenza
• vaccination
• Twitter
• randomized controlled trial
• social network analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Ohio State University STEAM Factory “STEAM Powered Project” seed grant for providing funding for raffle incentives, and the Ohio State University Student Health Center for providing flu vaccination data.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The research presented in this article met ethical guidelines, including adherence to legal requirements of the United States and has been approved by the Ohio State University IRB. The funding source played no role in how the research was conducted.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.