Health care provider use of motivational interviewing to address vaccine hesitancy in college students

Abstract

Background: Vaccine-preventable diseases significantly influence the health and academic success of college students. Despite the known negative impact of these diseases, vaccination rates routinely fall short of national goals and recommendations. Although vaccination decisions are complex, a recommendation from a health care provider is one of the key motivators for individuals receiving a vaccine. Motivational interviewing (MI), a counseling approach primarily used to address substance abuse, can be applied to other health-related behaviors.Local Problem: Despite previous quality improvement efforts aimed at increasing vaccine rates for influenza, human papillomavirus (HPV), and meningitis B (MenB), vaccinations at large university health centers have been well below benchmarks set by Healthy People 2020.Methods: This study was guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior and included MI training and regular reinforcement for health care providers to address vaccine hesitancy with college students.Results: Influenza vaccination rates improved, but HPV vaccine rates remained stable and MenB vaccine rates decreased compared with the previous year. Clinicians demonstrated a significant increase in knowledge of MI techniques after a targeted educational intervention. Repeat measures indicate the potential for sustained improvement when ongoing reinforcement is provided.Conclusion: MI can be an effective part of a strategy to increase vaccination rates.

Training Physicians in Motivational Communication to Address Influenza Vaccine Hesitation: A Proof-of-Concept Study

“…Our results are consistent with previous studies that have trained HCPs in MI [23,24]. A recent study reported that a short 2-h MI training could increase physician knowledge about MI techniques, but this increase in knowledge was only observed for up to one 1-month post-training [23].…”

“…A recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) also demonstrated that 20-min of counseling using MI techniques by a trained research assistant could significantly decrease the proportion of patients who were vaccine hesitant [21]. However, few studies have aimed to train healthcare providers (HCPs), especially physicians, to use MI techniques to address vaccine hesitancy [22][23][24].…”

Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy for Future COVID-19 and HIV Vaccines: Lessons from Measles and HPV Vaccines

“…Some studies combined message framing with one or more strategies such as free vaccine [139], and reminder and recall [140]. Another popular intervention was provider recommendation, either alone [141] or in combination with one or more strategies such as provider education [142,143], reminder and recall [144][145][146][147], on site vaccination [148][149][150], incentive [146], vaccine champion [147], and free vaccination [147]. Tull et al combined reminder and recall strategy with vaccination champion and on-site vaccination [151].…”

Association between patient characteristics and HPV vaccination recommendation for postpartum patients: A national survey of Obstetrician/Gynecologists

“…Training programs that involve motivational interviewing have improved provider communication about HPV vaccination, provider self-efficacy, and have helped address patient vaccine hesitancy ( Reno et al, 2018 , Wermers et al, 2021 ). Additional research has also utilized educational fact sheets in conjunction with motivational interviewing (MI) and has resulted in higher vaccine acceptance and uptake ( Reno et al, 2019 ).…”