Influenza Vaccination Quality Improvement as a Model for COVID-19 Prophylaxis

Development of an eLearning intervention for enhancing health professionals' skills for addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy

Like many countries, Greece has faced resistance to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination among residents for both the initial and booster doses. Supporting healthcare professionals with delivering brief advice on COVID-19 vaccination may assist with reaching national vaccination targets. We sought to rapidly develop, pilot test, and deploy an eLearning intervention on skills training on effective techniques for addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy for primary health and social care professionals in Greece. A five-part, 1.5-h eLearning was produced in Greek which featured two behavior change techniques, Very Brief Advice (VBA) and Motivational Interviewing (MI) adapted for use in addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Six-film-based case studies modeling the use of VBA and MI in the context of challenging scenarios typically seen in Greek health and social settings were produced for the eLearning. The CME was pilot tested using a pre-post design in a small convenience sample (n = 17) of health care professionals. Pilot study results found the training provided new knowledge (80%), improved provider skills (80%), and was useful to provider's clinical practice (90%). There was a mixed effect in provider capability, motivation, and opportunity. Ninety percent of providers strongly agreed or agreed that they planned to use the information and skills provided by the training in their clinical practice. This project has resulted in new training assets for use by health and social professional tailored to the nationally context in Greece including supporting uptake of booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Impact of Patient Portal Messaging Reminders with Self-Scheduling Option on Influenza Vaccination Rates: a Prospective, Randomized Trial

BACKGROUND

Patient portal messages have been used in a variety of ways to facilitate improved communication between provider and patient. These platforms have shown promise in many ways for improving various health outcomes and overall communication between patient and provider.

OBJECTIVE

Assess the impact of automated portal reminder messages and self-scheduling options on increasing rates of annual influenza vaccination.

DESIGN

This is a prospective, randomized, controlled study.

PARTICIPANTS

All patients who receive their primary care through an ambulatory primary care clinic at a large, multidisciplinary, academic health center.

INTERVENTIONS

One group of patients received a portal message reminder to undergo influenza vaccination. A second group received the same message with instructions to self-schedule the vaccination appointment. A third group received no portal message (control).

MAIN MEASURES

Rates of influenza vaccination in each group for previously unvaccinated patients in the 2019-2020 influenza season.

KEY RESULTS

For the group receiving the message with self-scheduling option (n=5408), the in-study vaccination rate was significantly greater than the group receiving no message (n=5621) (15.7% vs. 13.5%; p=0.002). For the group receiving a message alone (without self-scheduling) (n=5699), the in-study vaccination rate was significantly greater than the group receiving no message (15.1% vs. 13.5%; p=0.01). There was no significant difference in vaccination rate between the two intervention groups receiving messages (15.7% vs. 15.1%; p=0.549).

CONCLUSIONS

Portal messaging reminders increase annual influenza vaccination rates, but the addition of a self-scheduling option did not further increase rates.

KEY WORDS

vaccination patient portal messaging influenza.

Determination of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Vaccine Hesitancy Using a Systematic Review Approach Based on the Scientific Articles in PubMed Database

OBJECTIVE

Publications on vaccine hesitancy and the novel coronavirus disease 2019 in the scientific literature are increasing every day. An examination of their content will help to eliminate the existing negativity related to vaccine hesitancy through scientific methods. Hence, a systematic approach to the prevention of vaccine hesitancy worldwide can be developed. This article aims to survey how vaccine hesitancy is addressed in the PubMed articles about "vaccine hesitancy" over the novel coronavirus disease, for which the MeSH criteria have been published; to understand their recommendations for the prevention of vaccine hesitancy; to evaluate any related research described as "cross-sectional," "case-control," and "cohort" according to Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology criteria; and to contribute to the current literature on the subject.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This study is planned to use a systematic review format and STROBE checklist was used to evaluate the articles accessed from PubMed database. Microsoft Excel was used as the data calculation tool.

RESULTS

Sixty-five (81.3%) of the 80 articles investigated in the scope of this study mention "vaccine." While 64 articles (80%) discuss the determination of vaccine hesitancy, 57 (71.3%) articles address its prevention. The keyword "COVID-19" is used in 61 articles (79.2%). The second most frequently used keyword is "vaccine hesitancy" (n = 37, 48.1%), followed by "vaccine" (n = 25, 32.5%). Twenty-nine (48%) of the reviewed articles originate from the WHO American Continents. The second most represented region of research is the European Region (n = 21, 35%), followed by the South East Asian Region (n = 5, 8%).

CONCLUSION

This study illustrates the recent situation for the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine and reveals the presence of a vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is a risk factor that could prevent herd immunity. The systematic review of scientific articles should continue with improvements in order to tackle the problem as exemplified by the present study. Other checklists as well as STROBE checklist are recommended to be used in similar studies to have more objective conclusions.