Educating on professional habits: attitudes of medical students towards diverse strategies for promoting influenza vaccination and factors associated with the intention to get vaccinated

Abstract

BackgroundInfluenza vaccination coverage in medical students is usually low. Unlike health care workers, there is little information on the attitudes to and predictors of vaccination among medical students, and their attitudes towards institutional strategies for improving rates are unknown.MethodsThis cross-sectional study evaluated the effect of three influenza vaccination promotional strategies (Web page, video and tri-fold brochure) on medical students’ intention to get vaccinated and associated factors. A total of 538 medical students were asked to answer an anonymous questionnaire assessing the intention to get vaccinated after exposure to any of the promotional strategies. Sociodemographic data collected included: sex, age, university year, influenza risk group and cohabiting with member of a risk group.ResultsFour hundred twenty-one students answered the questionnaire, of whom 312 (74.1%) were female, 113 (26.8%) had done clinical rotations, and 111 (26.6%) reported intention to get the flu shot. Logistic regression showed the web group had a greater intention to get vaccinated than the reference group (OR: 2.42 95% CI: 1.16-5.03). Having done clinical rotations (OR: 2.55 95% CI: 1.36-4.38) and having received the shot in previous flu seasons (OR: 13.69 95% CI: 7.86-23.96) were independently associated with the intention to get vaccinated.ConclusionGiven that previous vaccination is a factor associated with the intention to get vaccinated, education on vaccination of health care workers should begin while they are students, thereby potentiating the habit. In addition, the intention to get vaccinated was greater during the clinical phase of the university career, suggesting this is a good time to introduce promotion strategies. Online promotional campaigns, such as a thematic Web to promote vaccination of health workers, could improve the intention to get vaccinated.

Interventions to Improve Adolescent Vaccination

“…Surprisingly, exposure to "positive" blogs had no effect when compared with controls. This work, combined with that focused on vaccination in other populations, [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] supports the notion that web-based social media can play a powerful role in mediating vaccination intentions and decisions.…”

Effectiveness of interventions that apply new media to improve vaccine uptake and vaccine coverage

“…28 Two studies were conducted in Spain. 29,30 Of the studies, 68% (n = 13) had an experimental study design, the rest were observational studies. In particular, we considered seven randomized controlled trials, 26,[31][32][33][34][35][36] five non-randomized trials, 27,30,37-39 three cross-sectional studies, 29,40,41 one case-control study, 42 and three studies that we considered to have an operational research approach.…”

“…[26][27][28][29][30]34,42 Internet is a potential useful tool to deliver interventions aimed at increasing community demand for immunizations, mainly through education and communication, 27,29,30,34,42 reminder/recall systems 28 and client-held medical records. 26 Included studies focused on how and how frequently internet was used to retrieve information on immunization 29,42 and how such information would positively or negatively influence immunization decision making.…”

“…26 Included studies focused on how and how frequently internet was used to retrieve information on immunization 29,42 and how such information would positively or negatively influence immunization decision making. 27,30,34,42 In particular, some studies generally explored the rate of net surfing to seek immunization-related information, 29,[40][41][42] while others focused on the role of specific immunization campaign websites and personalized portals, 26,27,29,30,34 blogs 34 and social media such as Youtube 27 and Facebook. 29 Retrieved studies were published between 2010 and 2013, in Australia, Ireland, Spain and the US.…”

“…Study populations Study populations were university students in the majority of the studies [26][27][28][29][30]34 and parents of children 42 ; sample sizes ranging from 177 to 588 subjects. Two papers described the same study population but different outcomes.…”