GP phone calls to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake among patients at increased risk of severe COVID-19: a randomised trial

Marit Tuv; Ingeborg Hess Elgersma; Ellen Furuseth; Christine Holst; Arnfinn Helleve; Atle Fretheim

doi:10.3399/BJGPO.2022.0175

GP phone calls to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake among patients at increased risk of severe COVID-19: a randomised trial

BJGP Open. 2023 Jun 27;7(2):BJGPO.2022.0175. doi: 10.3399/BJGPO.2022.0175. Print 2023 Jun.

Authors

Marit Tuv¹, Ingeborg Hess Elgersma², Ellen Furuseth³, Christine Holst², Arnfinn Helleve⁴, Atle Fretheim^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway marittuv@hotmail.com.
² Centre for Epidemic Interventions Research, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
³ Division for Infection Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Measures, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Background: English media have reported that many unvaccinated individuals took the COVID-19 vaccine after receiving a phone call from their GP.

Aim: To determine whether phone calls from GPs to unvaccinated patients at increased risk of severe COVID-19 improves uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Design & setting: Randomised trial where 202 participants were allocated to receive a phone call from their GP, and 452 participants were allocated to not get the call. Twenty-five GPs at 11 medical centres in Norway took part. The post-trial focus group discussion was with five GPs.

Method: Participants were sourced from the GP electronic medical record system, which communicates with the Norwegian Immunisation Registry and can generate a list of the GPs' unvaccinated patients at increased risk of severe COVID-19.

Results: The GPs managed to speak over the phone with 154 (76%) patients allocated to receiving a phone call. At follow-up (average 7.5 weeks), 8.9% in the intervention group and 5.3% in the control group had been vaccinated (odds ratio [OR] 1.72; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.90 to 3.28). Findings from the focus group discussion suggested the timing of the intervention as a likely key reason for its limited success.

Conclusion: An increase in the proportion of patients who took the COVID-19 vaccine in the intervention group was observed, but the difference was smaller than anticipated, and may be a chance finding. The effect of this type of intervention will likely vary across contexts and may have proved more effective if a larger proportion of the population were unvaccinated.

Keywords: COVID-19; general practice; general practitioners; primary healthcare; vaccines.