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School‐Located Influenza Vaccination: Do Vaccine Clinics at School Raise Vaccination Rates?
Author(s) -
Szilagyi Peter G.,
Schaffer Stanley,
Rand Cynthia M.,
Goldstein Nicolas PN,
Hightower A. Dirk,
Younge Mary,
Albertin Christina S.,
DiBitetto Kristine,
Yoo ByungKwang,
Humiston Sharon G.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/josh.12840
Subject(s) - vaccination , medicine , family medicine , health education , intervention (counseling) , pediatrics , public health , immunology , nursing
BACKGROUND Only half of US schoolchildren receive influenza vaccine. School‐located influenza vaccination (SLIV) might raise vaccination rates but conducting flu vaccine clinics at schools is challenging to implement. We compared 2 school‐based programs designed to raise influenza vaccination rates: parent reminder/educational messages sent to parents from schools which is a low‐intensity intervention vs the combination of reminder/educational messages plus SLIV clinics which is a high‐intensity intervention. METHODS We assigned 36 schools (6 school districts, 2 per group) to 3 groups: (1) control, ie, no SLIV and no parent reminder/education, (2) parent reminder/education emailed by schools, and (3) parent reminder/education plus SLIV clinics. Some schools had SLIV clinics in prior years. Health department nurses conducted SLIV clinics. RESULTS Among 24,832 children at 36 schools, vaccination rates were control (51.3%), parent reminder/education‐only (41.2%), and reminder/education + SLIV (58.7%). On multivariate analyses which controlled for vaccination in prior seasons, children in reminder/education + SLIV schools had higher vaccination rates (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.10‐1.47), but children in reminder/education‐only schools had lower rates (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.75‐1.00) than children in control schools. CONCLUSIONS Parent reminder/education combined with SLIV clinics raise vaccination rates, but parent reminder/education alone does not.