VOA常速双语新闻：利用短信帮助儿童疫苗接种

VOA常速双语新闻：利用短信帮助儿童疫苗接种
In a world of 7 billion people, communication industry records show that nearly 6 billion of us have access to cell phones.

In developing countries, healthcare workers in rural areas use mobile phones to connect with doctors and get instructions on patients’ care.

U.S researchers wondered if using a cell phone to text vaccination reminders to patients would result in more children being protected from the flu virus and in fewer hospitalizations.

Doctor Melissa Stockwell led the study.

“We wanted to know whether children of parents who we sent text messages would be more likely to receive influenza vaccination than those who weren’t texted.”

Doctor Stockwell led a randomized trial involving more than 9000 children and teenagers under the age of 18. One group of parents received only automated telephone reminders and were told how to access informational flyers about the flu.

The other group received text messages telling them about the virus and vaccination safety, plus reminders to get their children vaccinated. In the text messages, Doctor Stockwell wanted to clear up some common misperceptions about the virus.

“Many people think that flu is just bad cold. Or they think they or their child aren’t at risk for the flu.”

Doctor Stockwell texted parents in the second group in the fall before the flu season started, and again in the Spring, to find out how many of the children had been vaccinated.

She found that parents who received text messages were more likely to get their children immunized than parents who only got the automated phone calls. Although the difference in vaccination rates between the two groups was small, researchers found the results promising.

They say if texting is used across the country, the end result will be fewer hospitalizations and 2.5 million healthier kids.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
利用短信帮助儿童疫苗接种