Survey Finds That College Students Need More Incentive to Get Vaccinated

By Danielle Wirsansky on December 9, 2017

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) recently conducted on online survey between October 12 and 31, 2017, according to a press release. Among those polled were 1,005 college students aged 18-24 who are currently attending a 2-year or 4-year college or university within the United States. Their goal? To look at student attitudes toward flu vaccination.

via Pixabay

The survey revealed many new insights, such as new insights into increasing participation in vaccination programs on campuses, such as the fact that while a majority of college students in the U.S. (70%) believe it is important to get an annual flu vaccine, less than half (46%) actually get vaccinated. With these results, the NFID wanted to know how to best incentivize students into getting their vaccines. They found that with access to the vaccine at low or no cost (61%) and enticements, such as free food or gift cards (61%), students say it would increase their likelihood of getting vaccinated.

The reason that it is so important that college students receive vaccinations is that they are at particularly high risk of getting, and spreading, the flu. This is because the college lifestyle leaves them open to frequent exposure to high-touch areas like common living spaces and classrooms, as well as their participation in social activities.

“As a healthcare community, we’ve long known that college students are profoundly under-vaccinated. This new research indicates that a combination of education and incentives may be an effective way to reach college students who have been apprehensive about vaccination in the past,” said NFID Board member, Lisa S. Ipp, M.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, Associate Director of Adolescent Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital. “We now plan to work with academic, health, advocacy and student leaders to share these insights and uncover additional best practices to drive improvements in flu immunization efforts on campuses.”

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format