Vaccine Chatbot for Improving Influenza Vaccination Uptake

This study aims to assess the impact of a vaccine chatbot on improving influenza vaccination uptake among children aged between 6 and 59 months through a cluster randomized trial. Specifically, the main questions it seeks to answer are whether an AI-enabled vaccine chatbot will increase the uptake of influenza vaccine among children and their family members, and how it will influence parents' literacy and confidence towards influenza vaccine. It will explore the potential role of vaccine chatbot on vaccination services.

A cluster randomization will be used to assign children to the intervention and control groups. Parents of children in the intervention group will be invited to use the influenza vaccine chatbot online through WeChat, the mostly widely used social media platform in mainland China, or any web browsers. They can ask any questions related to the influenza vaccine and receive validated answers from the chatbot immediately. The intervention will last one and a half months, with invitations sent every ten days to reinforce the engagement. The control group will not use the chatbot during the intervention duration. After the intervention, the uptake, literacy, and confidence towards influenza vaccine will be compared between the intervention and control groups to evaluate the impact of vaccine chatbot.