Optimizing Weblinks Used in Digital Vaccination Invitations to Raise Trust and Booking Intention: Online Experiment 3
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 已完成
- 入组人数
- 4,014
- 试验地点
- 1
- 主要终点
- Perceived Trustworthiness
研究概览
简要总结
This study investigates how the design of weblinks in digital vaccination invitation emails influences recipient trust and their willingness to book an appointment. In this study, investigators compare three different link formats: a control third-party link previously used by the NHS, and two experimental weblinks: an improved version of the link, and a text embedded hyperlink.
The study tests primarily whether the two experimental weblinks will be perceived as more trustworthy and increase booking intention than the control weblink. Furthermore, the study examined whether the experimental weblinks are perceived to be more fluent (easier to read) and improve participants' ability to correctly identify the organisation (e.g., the NHS or a US pharmacy) that sent the hypothetical email.
To test these effects, investigators planned to gather data from 2,000 participants from the United Kingdom and 2,000 from the United States. They will be assigned to view one of the three hypothetical email versions. UK participants will see emails that appear to be from the NHS, while US participants see emails that appear to be from a local fictitious pharmacy. Due to US emails appearing to come from a fictitious pharmacy, investigators also expected that the benefit of correctly identifying the host organisation would be more pronounced in the United Kingdom than in the United States.
This research aims to provide evidence on how to design more effective and trustworthy digital health communications.
详细描述
This randomised experimental study investigates how weblink design influenced the perceived trustworthiness of digital health communications. As digital invitations (e.g., emails and SMS) have become standard for public health initiatives such as vaccination programmes, the use of third-party or disfluent (hard-to-read) web links may inadvertently undermine trust.
Study Protocol and Intervention
Participants will be randomly allocated to one of three experimental conditions. In all conditions, participants will view a hypothetical email invitation for a COVID-19 booster vaccine. The content of the emails remains identical except for the format of the embedded booking link:
Control Condition: Features the "accurx" web link previously used by the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK.
Experimental Condition 1: Features an improved, transparent - "clear" - weblink that was designed to be easier to read and clearly identifies the host organisation (e.g., https://vaccine-booking.nhs.uk).
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Randomized
- 干预模型
- Parallel
- 主要目的
- Prevention
- 盲法
- Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
盲法说明
This is a double-blind study in which participants were unaware of the specific experimental condition to which they had been assigned. Participants were randomly allocated to view only one of three possible versions of a hypothetical vaccination invitation email - featuring either a control link, a text-embedded hyperlink, or a transparent link - and were not informed of the existence or nature of the alternative stimuli. This masking ensures that their evaluations of trustworthiness, fluency, and booking intentions were not influenced by a direct comparison between the different link designs. As the study was conducted as an online survey via a fully automated platform, there was no direct interaction between the investigators and the participants during the intervention.
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 18 Years 至 —（Adult, Older Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 是
入选标准
- •Residency: Must be a resident of either the United Kingdom or the United States
排除标准
- •Attention Failure: Participants who failed the designated attention check included within the survey will be excluded from the analysis
- •Speeding: Participants who completed the study "too fast" - indicating a lack of meaningful engagement with the experimental stimuli - were filtered out
研究组 & 干预措施
Control: The weblink included in the email is cryptic: accurx.thirdparty+Host
Participants were assigned to view a hypothetical vaccination invitation email containing the control weblink (UK participants: accurx.thirdparty.nhs.uk/r/aafwaczmd5; US participants: accurx.thirdparty.pharmacy.com/r/aafwaczmd5)
The web link in the email is a text-embedded 'Book here' weblink
Participants assigned to this arm are shown a hypothetical COVID-19 booster vaccination invitation email in which the booking link is presented as a descriptive hyperlink - where the link is embedded in text (e.g., "Book your vaccine here").
干预措施: Concealing the weblink included in vaccination email invitation (Behavioral)
The web link in the email is a "clear" weblink: https://vaccine-booking+Host
Participants were assigned to view a hypothetical email containing an improved version of the weblink that more clearly showed the website host and that was designed to be easier to read (UK participants: https://vaccine-booking.nhs.uk; US participants: https://vaccine-booking.pharmacy.com)
干预措施: Improvement to the weblink included in the vaccination email invitation (Behavioral)
结局指标
主要结局
Perceived Trustworthiness
时间窗: Immediately after the intervention
Participants rated the perceived trustworthiness of the vaccination invitation email on a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 represents "Very suspicious", and 5 represents "Very trustworthy".
Booking Intention
时间窗: Immediately after the intervention
Participants rated their likelihood of booking a vaccine appointment based on the email invitation using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("Very unlikely") to 5 ("Very likely").
次要结局
- Ease of reading(Immediately after the intervention)
- Host Identification(Immediately after the intervention)
研究者
Marie Juanchich
Professor of Psychology
University of Essex