How colleges intervene to increase student body vaccination coverage

Abstract

Objective

The interventions colleges use to help students be compliant with vaccinations is unknown. This study describes colleges’ use of practices consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations to encourage student body vaccination.

Participants

Participants were a convenience sample of 136 student health center (SHC) administrators from colleges across the U.S.

Methods

An online survey assessed SHCs’ use of various practices, policies and services to improve student body vaccination coverage.

Results

There was wide variability in use of evidence-based interventions overall and with respect to specific vaccinations. While most SHCs (92.7%) coordinated vaccination outreach events on campus, only half (50%) accessed an immunization registry to verify vaccination histories. While 88.6% requested student vaccination histories for MMR, only 39.7% requested it for human papillomavirus (HPV).

Conclusions

The discrepancies in SHC implementation of interventions to increase coverage of the recommended vaccinations for students suggest that helping colleges expand their capacity to intervene may decrease coverage rate disparities.

Keywords:

• college
• practice guidelines
• quality improvement
• vaccination
• young adult

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Pfizer.