Mass Media Campaign Impacts Influenza Vaccine Obtainment of University Students.

PREVENTION of infectious disease transmission; INFLUENZA vaccines; DECISION making; IMMUNIZATION; MASS media; MEDICAL protocols; MOTIVATION (Psychology); HEALTH outcome assessment; QUALITY assurance; SURVEYS; WORLD Wide Web; INFORMATION resources; SOCIAL media; PRINT materials; UNDERGRADUATES; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; VACCINATION; THERAPEUTICS

Objective: To describe the effectiveness of a mass media campaign in increasing the rate of college student influenza vaccine obtainment.Participants/Methods: Students (N= 721) at a large southern university completed a survey between September 2011 and January 2012 assessing what flu clinic media sources were visualized and if they encouraged them to obtain vaccination.Results: Nearly a 30% increase was seen in flu vaccination rates in Fall 2011 over Fall 2010. The main campus Web site portal was the most visualized media source among students. The majority of responses indicated that the source of information visualized had a moderate to strong influence over their decision to get vaccinated.Conclusions: Various communication channels should be utilized to increase influenza vaccination rate on a university campus. Use of mass media to influence college students to perceive, retain, and act on the message of obtaining the influenza vaccine did produce a noteworthy outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of American College Health is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)