A survey of university students on attitudes, behaviors, and intentions toward influenza vaccination

Abstract

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 immunizations. Bivariate tests were performed to observe differences between various subgroups of respondents (age, gender, race/ethnicity, housing, and academic program). Multivariate logistic regression was performed to find associations with their vaccination preferences.

Results 

Of 3,267 complete responses (36.3% of total students), 75% reported obtaining influenza vaccination in 2016–2017. Vaccination rates were highest for Asian (81.0%) and lowest for Black students (59.6%). Health professional student vaccination rates of 89.3% were achieved with a vaccination mandate in place. Lowest immunization rates were identified for law (47.1%) and business (52.7%) students. Positive promotional factors were identified.

Conclusions 

Access to free, on-campus vaccinations, mandates and promotional efforts are associated with high influenza vaccination rates.

Keywords:

• Influenza
• mandates
• students
• universities
• vaccination

Acknowledgments

We thank Susan Weston (Creighton University Student Health and Immunization Task Force-Metro Omaha) and Debra Saure (Creighton University Student Health) for their input in designing survey questions and providing information on “Shoo the Flu” clinics. We thank Ted Kaufman (Creighton University) for Qualtrics, technical, and administrative support. We thank the Immunization Task force – Metro Omaha for providing funding for research and conference travel. We thank Graduate Student Government at Creighton University for providing conference travel funding for poster presentation at APhA 2018 Annual meeting & Exposition, Nashville, TN. We thank Dr. Kevin Fuji (Director of the Center for Health Service Research and Patient Safety, Creighton University School of Pharmacy) for providing funding for dissemination at the 14th Annual Immunization conference, Omaha, NE.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the IRB of Creighton University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Immunization Task force – Metro Omaha under Student Research Award.