Trial reportBMJ global health2022
When do persuasive messages on vaccine safety steer COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and recommendations? Behavioural insights from a randomised controlled experiment in Malaysia.
Trial report in BMJ global health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05244356 (Effective Public Health Communication to Influence COVID-19 Vaccination Intent and Message Propagation), which is not on this map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effective Public Health Communication to Influence COVID-19 Vaccination Intent and Message Propagation: A Randomized Controlled Experiment
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Communication-based interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccine willingness and uptake: a systematic review with meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Does the messenger make the difference? Perceived reliability of health information sources during the COVID-19 pandemic in multi-ethnic Malaysia.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- How topic content shapes LLM personality-tailored persuasion: semantic anchoring and topic stereotype effects.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The role of interdependent self-construal in mitigating the effect of conspiratorial beliefs on vaccine acceptance.The British journal of social psychology · 2025Article
- Effect of informational videos on vaccine perceptions among unvaccinated individuals: a randomised educational intervention.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Review
- Message Effectiveness of Fear Appeals in Vaccination Communication Campaigns: A Systematic Review.Vaccines · 2024Review
- A qualitative inquiry on drivers of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among adults in Kenya.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionVaccine safety is a primary concern among vaccine-hesitant individuals. We examined how seven persuasive messages with different frames, all focusing on vaccine safety, influenced Malaysians to accept the COVID-19 vaccine, and recommend it to individuals with different health and age profiles; that is, healthy adults, the elderly, and people with pre-existing health conditions.
methodsA randomised controlled experiment was conducted from 29 April to 7 June 2021, which coincided with the early phases of the national vaccination programme when vaccine uptake data were largely unavailable. 5784 Malaysians were randomly allocated into 14 experimental arms and exposed to one or two messages that promoted COVID-19 vaccination. Interventional messages were applied alone or in combination and compared against a control message. Outcome measures were assessed as intent to both take the vaccine and recommend it to healthy adults, the elderly, and people with pre-existing health conditions, before and after message exposure. Changes in intent were modelled and we estimated the average marginal effects based on changes in the predicted probability of responding with a positive intent for each of the four outcomes.
resultsWe found that persuasive communication via several of the experimented messages improved recommendation intentions to people with pre-existing health conditions, with improvements ranging from 4 to 8 percentage points. In contrast, none of the messages neither significantly improved vaccination intentions, nor recommendations to healthy adults and the elderly. Instead, we found evidence suggestive of backfiring among certain outcomes with messages using negative attribute frames, risky choice frames, and priming descriptive norms.
conclusionMessage frames that briefly communicate verbatim facts and stimulate rational thinking regarding vaccine safety may be ineffective at positively influencing vaccine-hesitant individuals. Messages intended to promote recommendations of novel health interventions to people with pre-existing health conditions should incorporate safety dimensions. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05244356.
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