Impact of Video Education on Influenza Vaccination in Pregnancy

Despite influenza vaccination being an integral part of prenatal care, vaccination rates remain low. To evaluate the impact of pre-visit video education on patients' vaccination health beliefs and vaccination rate.

From November 2013-January 2014 unvaccinated patients seen for routine prenatal carewere randomized into 2 study groups: pre-visit vaccination video education or control. Pre- and post-video health beliefs were assessed on a 5-point scale, and unvaccinated participants were subsequently interviewed by phone.

In 105 randomized participants, intervention positively influenced health beliefs, as demonstrated by differences in mean pre- versus post-video scores for intervention versus control: vaccination may harm mother (difference = -0.05, p = 0.009) and baby (difference = -0.44, p = 0.015), and vaccination can protect mother (difference = 0.49, p = 0.003) and baby (difference = 0.59, p = 0.001). Vaccination rates were 28% intervention and 25% control (p = 0.70). Provider recommendation was associated with vaccination (47% if recommended vs. 12% if not, p < 0.001). Phone interviews revealed susceptibility, to influenza and vaccine safety as primary reasons for remaining unvaccinated.

Video education positively influenced vaccination health beliefs without impacting vaccination rates. Physician's recommendation was strongly associated with participant's decision to become vaccinated and may be most effective when emphasizing influenza vaccination's protective impact on the newborn,.