Objective: Even healthy college students are vulnerable to severe complications associated with seasonal influenza (flu). Despite national directives to increase influenza vaccination compliance, college campuses remain woefully below national goals. This study aimed to identify factors correlated with the decision to voluntarily receive an…

To improve uptake of influenza vaccine in pregnancy, it is important to understand the factors that predict prenatal vaccination. The aim of this study was to test the capability of the theory of planned behavior, augmented with information constructs, to predict and explain influenza vaccination uptake in a sample of 600 pregnant individuals in…

Objective: College student populations are considered at greater risk of contracting influenza due to their close living conditions. Despite this increased risk, college students are reluctant to obtain annual vaccination. This pilot study sought to determine perceptions of students on a college campus who received the annual influenza vaccination…

Increasing the proportion of persons, including children, who are vaccinated annually against seasonal influenza is a Healthy People 2030 Leading Health Indicator. Vaccination is effective in preventing influenza. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends an annual influenza vaccination for children aged 6 months and over. This…

Objective: To determine attitudes, behaviors, and intentions of university students regarding influenza vaccination. Participants: Undergraduate, graduate, and professional students enrolled at a private, midwestern university. Methods: A 24-item electronic survey was designed and distributed after literature review and inputs from experts on…

Objective: To evaluate college students' awareness of an educational initiative to increase campus influenza vaccination rates and strategies to improve it. Participants: Students attending a large public comprehensive university. Methods: An investigator-developed, online survey evaluated awareness of the initiative, the students' perception of…

Objective: To investigate influenza vaccination rates and perceptions underlying vaccine noncompliance. Participants: Participants included undergraduate students (N = 365) at a rural, medium-sized university in Texas. Methods: Students were anonymously surveyed in the spring of 2018 on demographics, insurance status, perceived barriers of…

Objective: Seasonal influenza is a preventable disease that may cause high morbidity and mortality. In the USA, the 2020 influenza season overlapped with the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. There is a dearth of research on understanding influenza vaccination uptake and attitudes towards the vaccine among marginalised…

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of Health Belief Model-based education on determinants of intention to perform influenza prevention behaviors among the older adults. In this experimental controlled randomized study conducted on 100 rural older adults (50 in each group), four education sessions were conducted for the experiment…

Objective: Influenza attack rates among college students are high. However, little is known about the determinants of students' flu vaccine adoption from their own perspectives. To fill this gap, this study aims to investigate barriers and facilitators to college students' flu vaccine adoption. Methods: A total of 545 students offered complete…

Although schools and school districts have experience planning for biological hazards (such as contaminated food) and types of infectious diseases (seasonal flu, Staphylococcus aureus, meningitis, etc.), pandemics often present unique challenges and greatly impact efforts to ensure continuity of teaching and learning, as well as safety. The…

In the past hundred years, there have been a number of pandemics that have affected the entire world, including the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the 1957 H2N2 influenza pandemic, and the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. While responses to the most recent H1N1 influenza pandemic remained local, the COVID-19 pandemic, on the other hand, resulted in…

While both the 1918 influenza (aka Spanish flu) and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemics were devastating, the 1918 influenza pandemic was considered worse. Its origins are still debated, but it was first identified in the United States at Fort Riley, an Army base in Kansas. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated…

In an effort to reduce viral transmission, many schools are planning to reduce class size if they have not reduced it already. Yet the effect of class size on transmission is unknown. To determine whether smaller classes reduce school absence, especially when community disease prevalence is high, we merge data from the Project STAR randomized…

Promoting behaviors that prevent infectious disease is a primary curricular aim of school health education. Enabling students to advocate for influenza prevention using social media is a teaching approach consistent with this aim. Objectives: Students will be able to: 1) identify and describe strategies for influenza prevention; 2) describe and…