Do tailored interventions increase flu shot intentions?

Interventions to lower vaccine hesitancy often have positive effects among people who hold a favorable attitude towards vaccination and more mixed effects among vaccine-hesitant people. One possible explanation is that the intervention is typically a generic intervention that is not tailored to the specific reason why a particular person is hesitant towards vaccination. The attitude-roots model proposes that interventions are more likely to be successful when tailored to the particular underlying cause or reason for people’s opposition to vaccination. In this study, we tested this proposition by assessing whether a tailored intervention tailored is effective in increasing flu shot intentions. Participants (n = 1,021) reported their flu shot intentions at two-time points and were presented with either a tailored, a generic, or no infographic. Flu shot intentions increased significantly after people were presented with the tailored infographic, but that this increase was not significant compared to participants who were presented with the generic infographic or no infographic. Overall, our findings showed mixed support for the effectiveness of a tailored approach to increase flu shot intentions. This suggests that more research is needed to determine if and how tailored interventions are a viable strategy to reduce vaccination hesitancy.