| Methods |
Purpose: to compare generic postcard recommending immunisation, personalised postcard from physician, personalised letter from physician tailored to health risk, and no intervention
Design: participants randomised to 3 interventions and 1 control group
Duration of study: reminders posted 3rd week of September 1995; date of end of study not stated
Interval between intervention and when outcome was measured: not stated
Power computation: not performed
Statistics: percentages, ORs and 95% CIs |
| Participants |
Country: USA
Setting: Henry Ford multispecialty clinics, southeast Michigan
Eligible participants: high risk adult patients were defined as having asthma, diabetes, end‐stage renal disease, sickle cell disease, ischaemic cardiomyopathy, or nephrotic syndrome); of these participants aged ≥ 65 years were included
Age: ≥ 65 years
Gender: 57.7% female |
| Interventions |
Intervention 1: generic postcard recommending immunisation
Intervention 2: personalised postcard from physician
Intervention 3: personalised letter from physician tailored to health risk
Control: no intervention
Co‐interventions: walk‐in influenza clinics October; printed materials based on Health Beliefs Model; toll‐free telephone line |
| Outcomes |
Outcome measured: % influenza vaccination
Time points from the study considered in the review or measured or reported in the study: computer‐generated reminders sent last week of September 1995, date of end of study not stated
% vaccinated by: not stated |
| Notes |
Funding: not stated |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
"randomised into one of four groups" (no method stated) |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
No statement |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
No statement, but computerised billing data |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
Cohort = 24,743, aged ≥ 65 years = 17,598; aged < 65 years with chronic condition = 10,573; aged ≥ 65 years with chronic condition = 3431, so there is overlap and those aged < 65 years and aged ≥ 65 years total 28,171, 3428 more than the cohort. We were unable to contact the authors after numerous e‐mail attempts including colleagues and organisations. |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
No selective reporting |
