Communication interventions to promote vaccination uptake: A systematic review protocol

Background The use of communication interventions to promote vaccination has been more frequent in this century. These types of interventions have proven to be effective in reaching the majority of the population. Knowing the characteristics and results of communication interventions to foster vaccine uptake is important, especially with the outbreak of new infectious diseases such as the novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2). This protocol will guide the development of a systematic review of the literature aiming to identify and analyze the evidence of communication interventions to incentivize vaccine uptake among populations living in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Methods This systematic review protocol is guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). The searches for the systematic review will be carried out through five electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Redalyc and PyscInfo. Two individuals will review each paper individually and in parallel using the software Rayyan. Duplicate elimination, title and abstract screening, and full text screening will be performed by the two reviewers. A matrix constructed in Excel will be used to extract data and to review the quality of the studies Quality assessment will be conducted using the QATSDD Critical Appraisal Tool. Discussion The results of this systematic review will contribute to the public health literature in the area of behavior change communication in general, and vaccination communication in particular. Findings from this study would also inform the development of communication interventions to improve vaccination uptake in LMICs. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42022355541 ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This research forms part of the Digital Applications to Monitor Novel coronavirus Disease and Response in Colombia - syndromic and vaccination surveillance (DIAMOND-R) project, financed by the Inter American Development Bank (grant number: CO-T1593-P001), and by Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Project number: PRY 9880 of 2022). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present work are contained in the manuscript * LMICs : Low-and-middle-income countries QATSDD : Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs COVID-19 : CoronaVIrus Disease of 2019 WHO : World Health Organization SBCC : Social and Behavior Change Communication USAID : United States Agency for International Development IVR : Interactive Voice Response COMBI : Communication for behavioral impact C4D : Communication for Development