Validity of the Health Belief Model Applied to Influenza among people with chronic diseases: Is it time to develop a new knowledge domain?

Acceptability, cost-effectiveness, and capacity of a facility-based seasonal influenza vaccination among high-risk groups: a study protocol in selected tertiary care hospitals of Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

In Bangladesh, seasonal influenza imposes considerable disease and economic burden, especially for those at high-risk of severe disease. The most successful approach for influenza prevention is the administration of a vaccine. Many poor and middle-income nations, including Bangladesh, do not have a national strategy or program in place for seasonal influenza vaccines, despite the World Health Organization's (WHO) advice to prioritize high-risk populations. Additionally, there is a scarcity of substantial data on the cost-effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination in these countries. The aim of our study is to determine acceptability, health beliefs, barriers, and intention of receiving influenza vaccine among high-risk populations, assess the cost-effectiveness of implementing a facility-based seasonal influenza vaccination programme, and investigate the required capacity for a potential seasonal influenza vaccination programme.

METHODS

We will undertake this study following STROBE guidelines. We will conduct the study in inpatient and outpatient departments of three selected tertiary-level hospitals leveraging the ongoing hospital-based influenza surveillance (HBIS) platform. The study population will include the WHO-defined four high-risk groups excluding healthcare workers: children six months to eight years, pregnant women, elderly ≥ 60 years, and adults with chronic diseases. We will collect quantitative data on participants' acceptability, health beliefs, barriers, and vaccination intentions using the health belief model (HBM) from patients meeting the criteria for high-risk populations attending two public tertiary-level hospitals. In one of the two public tertiary-level hospitals, we will arrange an influenza vaccination campaign before the influenza season, where the vaccine will be offered free of cost to high-risk patients, and in the second hospital, vaccination will not be offered. Both the vaccinated and unvaccinated participants will then be followed-up once a month for one year to record any influenza-like illness, hospitalization, and death. Additional data for objective two will be collected from patients with symptoms of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) at one public and one private hospital to determine both direct and indirect costs associated with influenza illness. We will estimate the required number of influenza vaccines, safe injections, and total storage volume utilizing secondary data. We will use a deterministic Markov decision-analytic model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of facility-based influenza vaccination in Bangladesh.

DISCUSSION

The results of this study will enable the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare of Bangladesh to decide what steps to take to develop and implement an influenza vaccination strategy targeting high-risk populations.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The Clinicaltrials.gov registration number is NCT05996549. The registration for the protocol version 2.0 took place in August 2023, with the initial participant being enrolled in March 2022.

Associations of health literacy with missed free influenza immunization in people with chronic diseases

There is a gap in understanding specific features of health literacy that might be associated with adherence to influenza immunization. The aim of this study was to examine the association of health literacy with avoidance of influenza immunization and beliefs about the influenza vaccine among people with chronic diseases. Selection of study participants was based on a case-control study design in a population of people with chronic illnesses living in the Foča region (Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and who were entitled to receive a free influenza shot in season 2017/2018. The cases represented all non-vaccinated people (a total of 146) and the controls were vaccinated people (a total of 149) matched according to town of residence. Participants were interviewed in person from April to December 2018 using a socio-demographic questionnaire, Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) and Health Belief Model Applied to Influenza (HBMAI). Better score on 'Feeling understood and supported by healthcare providers', 'Social support for health' and 'Ability to actively engage with healthcare providers' was associated with more perceived benefits of influenza immunization in men, but not in women. Perceiving more Barriers to influenza immunization was associated with lower scores on 'Feeling understood and supported by healthcare providers', 'Have sufficient information to manage health', 'Social support for health' and 'Ability to actively engage with healthcare providers' in both men and women. Health literacy may be associated with the perception of susceptibility to influenza, benefits and barriers to influenza immunization and motivations to receive influenza vaccine.