Targeted Vaccinations: Client or Family Incentives

Task Force Finding*

Client or family incentives involve motivating clients with rewards (e.g., money or discount coupons for retail stores) or the threat of penalties (e.g., being excluded from participating in a program). A review of the available scientific evidence identified one qualifying study of the effectiveness of client incentives when implemented alone in improving targeted vaccine coverage. The single study evaluated the effectiveness of monetary incentives in increasing hepatitis B vaccination of high-risk clients (injection drug users). Clients who were offered incentives demonstrated a large and significant increase in vaccination rates. No qualifying studies of the use of client incentives in improving vaccination coverage for influenza or pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines were identified.

The Task Force finds insufficient evidence evidence to determine the effectiveness of client or family incentives when implemented alone in improving influenza, pneumococcal polysaccharide, or hepatitis B vaccination coverage in high-risk adults because only the one study, with fair quality of execution, was identified.

*From the following publication:

Task Force for Community Preventive Services. Recommendations to improve targeted vaccination coverage among high-risk adults. [PDF - 97KB] Am J Prev Med 2005:28(5S);231-7.

Review completed: June 2002