Healthy, Immunized Communities Study

Penn State Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Communicable Diseases in Children; Vaccine Hesitancy

Treatments: Behavioral: Community Event; Behavioral: Educational Material

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT03854734

Study000011289

Details and patient eligibility

About

This project aims to understand how improving vaccine education and awareness can impact the number of parents who vaccinate, or intend to vaccine, their middle school-aged children with age-appropriate vaccines, including human papillomavirus (HPV), meningitis (MCV) and tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (TDap).

Full description

Vaccines are considered one of the greatest public health successes. Unfortunately, an increasing rate of parental resistance in recent years has led to a reemergence of vaccine-preventable diseases. This project seeks to determine the effect of a multi-tiered school and community-based approach to improving rates of parental intent to vaccinate for middle school-aged vaccinations including Human Papillomavirus (HPV), meningitis (MCV) and Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (TDap).

By randomizing participating schools, parents receiving the intervention participated in (1) a community-based event to raise parental awareness of the importance of vaccination and (2) a social marketing campaign targeting parents' attitudes and knowledge around vaccinations.

The Investigators hypothesized that participation in this study would increase parental intention to vaccinate. In addition, this study intended to improve rates of recommended vaccination among middle school-aged children, as measured through vaccine uptake information required for annual entry into Pennsylvania public schools.

The Penn State team brings a breadth of experience in pediatrics, community-engaged research, adolescent health, and engagement with schools.

Enrollment: 148 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 18 years or older
• Parents and guardians of children who attend a School District of Lancaster middle schools
• Individuals who read and understand English
• Individuals with an email address

Exclusion Criteria

• Individuals who are non-English speaking
• Parents/Guardians <18 years or older who do not have children attending a middle school in the School District of Lancaster
• Individuals who do not have an email address
• Individuals who plan on moving out of the Lancaster City area in the next year

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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148 participants in 2 patient groups

Usual Care

No Intervention group

Description:

Educational emails about broad health topics to keep control group engaged

Multi-Component Intervention

Active Comparator group

Description:

(1) a community event to raise parental awareness of the importance of vaccination; (2) social marketing to target parents' attitudes and knowledge around vaccinations in the form of educational material

Treatment:

Behavioral: Educational Material

Behavioral: Community Event