Abstract
The Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) in the General Services Administration and the National Vaccine Program Office in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are collaborating to identify low-cost, behaviorally-informed program changes to improve immunization compliance through the application and evaluation of behavioral insights.
Working with the District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) Immunization Program, OES will co-design and field a new communication tool targeted at increasing immunization compliance at schools and childcare centers. DOH will – at two different times during the school year - mail report cards to school principals and childcare center directors to highlight their organization’s immunization compliance rates relative to schools in their category, e.g., elementary, middle, high, etc., and childcare centers with compliance rates in the top 10%, and DC’s compliance targets. The evaluation will entail randomization at the level of the school/childcare to a treatment arm that will receive report cards, and a control arm that will not receive report cards. The research team will then estimate the effects of the report card intervention on immunization compliance rates at the school/childcare level and, in the nearer-term, on compliance-related activities carried out by the sites. If effective, the Immunization Program will adapt the report card to incorporate it into the Program’s electronic communications plan.