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A Video-Based Intervention to Assess COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccine Acceptability in a Pediatric Emergency Department
Brittany Ebbing1, Lynne Fullerton2, Sarah Putnam3
1Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ.
Insights
A short educational video shown in pediatric emergency departments increased caregiver willingness to vaccinate themselves and their children against COVID-19 and influenza. This intervention shows promise for improving vaccine readiness in underserved communities.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Public Health
- Health Communication
Background:
- Childhood vaccination rates for COVID-19 and influenza remain low.
- Pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) offer a novel setting for vaccine administration due to limited primary care access.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess if a brief educational video increases vaccine readiness among adult caregivers for themselves and their children.
- To evaluate the impact of a community-tailored video intervention on vaccine attitudes in a PED setting.
Main Methods:
- A convenience sample of 339 caregivers in a university-based PED participated.
- Caregivers completed pre- and post-intervention surveys on vaccine attitudes and readiness after viewing a 3-minute educational video.
- The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to analyze changes in attitudes.
Main Results:
- COVID-19 vaccine acceptability increased significantly for both caregivers and their children post-intervention (P=0.0017 and P=0.0038).
- Caregivers showed increased willingness to discuss influenza vaccine administration for their children with a doctor (P=0.012).
- The study population was diverse, with 69% Hispanic and 16% Native American caregivers, 30% residing in rural areas.
Conclusions:
- A brief, locally relevant video intervention in PEDs can improve caregiver vaccine readiness for COVID-19 and influenza.
- This intervention model, adaptable to community specifics, could help reduce vaccine-preventable disease burden.
- Integrating such interventions with vaccine administration holds potential to significantly impact public health outcomes.
Introduction:
Children have unacceptably low rates of COVID-19 and influenza vaccine uptake. Given limited access to primary care for many children, pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) are novel settings for COVID-19 and influenza vaccine administration.
Objective:
Our study tested whether viewing a brief educational video would be associated with an increase in COVID-19 and influenza vaccine readiness among adult caregivers for themselves and their children.
Methods:
This study consisted of a convenience sample of 339 caregivers accompanying pediatric patients to a university-based PED from 1/13/2022 to 5/11/2022. Participants completed a pre-intervention survey through iPad that gathered information concerning demographics, COVID-19 beliefs, and vaccine attitudes and readiness. Participants watched a novel 3-minute educational video created by the study team addressing risks and benefits of vaccine-preventable illnesses and immunizations. Information in the video was delivered by local medical professionals and tailored to our community. Participants were then resurveyed with only the questions about vaccine attitudes and vaccine readiness. Pre-intervention/post-intervention attitude changes were assessed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Results:
Participants were 69% Hispanic and 16% Native American, with a median age of 34 years; 30% resided in rural areas. Post-intervention, COVID-19 vaccine acceptability as reported by caregivers increased on a 5-point agreement scale for both themselves ( P =0.0017) and their children ( P =0.0038). Participants were also more likely to be willing to talk to a pediatric emergency medicine doctor about influenza vaccine administration for their children after the intervention ( P =0.012).
Conclusions:
A brief video-based intervention featuring locally relevant content in a PED targeted at caregivers was associated with improvement in some measures of vaccine readiness as reported by caregivers for both themselves and their children. Similar interventions could be modeled specifically for individual community characteristics and combined with vaccine administration to substantially impact morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases.
