Article2003

Influenza Vaccination Among Veterans With Spinal Cord Injury: Part 2. Increasing Vaccination Rates

Frances M. Weaver · Charlesnika Tyon Evans · Marcia West Legro · Sherri L. LaVela · Bridget Smith · Scott A. Miskevics +1 more

29 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Spinal Cord Medicine

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy Spinal Cord Injury Research Intramuscular injections and effects

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Respiratory complications are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Influenza vaccination is effective in reducing the likelihood of contracting influenza and of subsequent respiratory complications, hospitalizations, and deaths. Historically, vaccination rates for veterans with SCI treated in Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities have been low. The objective of this study was to increase vaccination rates in this population using a multipronged strategy. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design involving 2,284 veterans treated at 8 VA SCI Centers was used. Patients at 4 centers received reminder letters and educational materials tailored to SCI. Provider education included mailed reminders and posters in SCI clinical areas. Clinical champions were identified at each site. Four other centers, matched to the study sites in program size and prior vaccination rates, served as comparison sites providing usual care. Vaccination rates were assessed using mailed surveys with telephone follow-up. RESULTS: The influenza vaccination rate was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the comparison group (60.5% vs 54.3%; P = 0.01 ). Vaccine recipients were older than nonrecipients (mean age 60.8 vs 53.1 years; P < 0.0001). Reasons for not receiving a vaccination included refusal, feeling that being vaccinated was not worth the trouble, and not believing that the vaccine would prevent influenza. CONCLUSIONS: Use of low-cost mailed reminders and educational materials resulted in significantly higher vaccination rates. Further efforts to reach targeted subgroups of nonrecipients, such as patients who are younger or from an ethnic minority, are warranted.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 29 citations exist upstream.

References

2000Effect of Patient Reminder/Recall Interventions on Immunization Rates 1999Decision on influenza vaccination among the elderly: A questionnaire study based on the Health Belief Model and the Multidimensional Locus of Control Theory 1998Ten-year durability and success of an organized program to increase influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates among high-risk adults 1995Evaluation of the effectiveness of immunization delivery methods.1994Prevention of Respiratory Infections in Adults 1987Influenza Vaccination in Community Elderly 1999Mailed Reminders for Area‐Wide Influenza Immunization: A Randomized Controlled Trial 1999Improving pneumococcal vaccine rates

Cited by

2007Interventions to Increase Influenza Vaccination Rates in Veterans With Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.