Brief report
A novel approach to improve influenza vaccination rates among health care professionals: A prospective randomized controlled trial

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2007.10.019Get rights and content

Background

Although influenza is the leading infections cause of death in the United States, only 40% of health care workers (HCW) comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation for routine influenza vaccination.

Methods

This study investigated a novel approach for improving influenza vaccination rates among HCW. Eight hundred employees we selected, 200 each from the following 4 categories: professional staff, resident physicians, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive (1) no intervention, (2) a letter explaining the importance of influenza vaccine for HCW, (3) a ticket activated with influenza vaccine administration for a raffle of a free Caribbean vacation for 2, or (4) both the educational letter and the raffle ticket. We compared the proportion of employees receiving vaccination and participating in the raffle across groups.

Results

The influenza vaccination rate for all study subjects was 41%. The number of subjects receiving vaccine did not differ by occupation (P = .87) or intervention group (P = .66).

Conclusions

This study provides no evidence to support the use of mailed educational letters or a single large raffle prize incentive as a means to boost hospital employee influenza vaccination rates.

Section snippets

Methods

Eligible study participants consisted of 6723 physicians and nurses with predominantly direct patient contact at an urban tertiary care hospital. From this group, we selected 800 at random, 200 each from the following 4 categories: professional staff, resident physicians, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses. Within each job category, 50 subjects were assigned to receive either (1) no additional intervention beyond the usual multifactored approach (eg, educational posters,

Results

The overall influenza vaccination rate for all 800 study subjects was 41%. The rate reported for all hospital employees during the same time period was 38.2%. The number of vaccinated subjects did not differ by occupation (P = .87, Table 1) or intervention group (P = .66, Table 2). There was a positive, although statistically insignificant trend, toward influenza vaccine compliance in subjects offered a raffle ticket or raffle ticket in addition to the educational letter (43.3%), as compared

Discussion

The difficulty of the raffle drawing entry process may have prevented a number of individuals from participating. To enter the raffle, subjects were required to save the ticket mailed to their home, remember to bring it with them at time of influenza administration, then return it by interoffice mail in a preaddressed envelope we provided. Not only may there have been too many steps in this process, but the indication that the envelope should be sent by interoffice and not regular postal mail

Summary

This study provides no evidence that a mailed educational letter and/or a single large raffle prize will improve the number of HCW receiving influenza vaccination. Further studies may help determine which interventions are needed to achieve adequate compliance.

References (4)

  • CDC

    Tiered use of inactivated influenza vaccine in the event of a vaccine shortage

    MMWR Rep

    (2005)
  • C.D. Salgado et al.

    Preventing nosocomial influenza by improving the vaccine acceptance rate of clinicians

    Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol

    (2004)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (44)

  • Attitudes towards influenza and uptake of the flu vaccine: A survey of pharmacy staff working in English hospitals

    2021, Vaccine
    Citation Excerpt :

    Previous research has demonstrated that correct knowledge regarding influenza and vaccination was strongly correlated to vaccine uptake [23,25]. However, studies of at-work or post-registration education sessions and information regarding influenza and the vaccine suggest the effect of this intervention alone on vaccine uptake was often small [26,29,30] or even negative [25]. Unfortunately, the topics of vaccination and infection are omitted in the updated education standards for pharmacy technicians [31], which may present a missed opportunity to ensure this professional group has good knowledge of influenza and vaccinations.

  • What influenza vaccination programmes are preferred by healthcare personnel? A discrete choice experiment

    2020, Vaccine
    Citation Excerpt :

    Psychological determinants of SIV uptake among HCP, including perceived effectiveness of SIV for preventing influenza virus infection, concerns about vaccine safety, and perceived personal risk of influenza virus infection have been consistently identified by observational studies [20–23]. However, interventional studies focusing on addressing these psychological factors through active educational campaign to promote positive attitudes towards SIV indicated mainly small effect sizes for promoting SIV uptake among HCP [24–26]. A systematic review suggested that interventions that additionally combined components addressing the contextual factors relating to vaccination could be more effective in promoting SIV uptake among HCP [12].

  • Vaccination of healthcare workers against influenza: does a day off make a difference?

    2018, Journal of Hospital Infection
    Citation Excerpt :

    The use of reward systems was significantly associated with the highest vaccination rates among HCWs. The use of incentives and rewards has been associated with higher vaccine uptake rates among HCWs in several studies [6–9], but not in others [10,11]. The present study found that one day off work was associated with the greatest increase in influenza vaccination rate.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text