Title
Community Immunity
Author
Micaiah A. Herndon
Problem/Need
statement
The proportion of pediatricians reporting
parental vaccine refusals increased from 74.5% in 2006 to 87.0% in 2013. They perceive that vaccine-refusing parents
increasingly believe that immunizations are unnecessary.1 Unfortunately,
parents' decisions to delay or refuse vaccines have been shown to be associated
with increased risk of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) for both individuals
and communities. Community Immunity will
work with pediatricians and parents to increase national immunization rates.
Goals
and Objectives
Goal 1: Debunk inaccurate myths about
immunization.
Objective: 100% of users will be informed
of factual pros and cons of vaccine use and the benefits of immunization.
Goal 2: Increase vaccine (health)
literacy.
Objective: Increase health literacy with
regards to immunization by 40%.
Goal 3: Empowering parents to take control
of their child’s overall health.
Objective: To have 60% of website users
engage in educated dialogue and making informed decisions with their
pediatrician.
Sponsoring
agency/Contact person
Contact person: Micaiah Herndon can be
reached via email at micaiah.herndon@communityimmunity.com.
Sponsoring agency: Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/index.html
Primary
target audience(s)
The primary target audience is expecting
parents and parents of children and adolescents whom are using personal belief
exemptions to opt of vaccines for their children. More specifically, mostly white, affluent,
suburban parents.
Primary
target key strategies (list for each audience)
The goal is to influence behavior change
through education. We will inform the
parents of the false information being disseminated throughout their
communities and provide valid them with information. Pediatricians perceive that parents are
increasingly refusing vaccinations because parents believe they are unnecessary,
discomfort for the child, and concern for immune system burden.1
Express the risks of vaccine refusal by providing relatable examples of preventable
disease outbreaks (Disney Land). When
you start seeing a fraying of herd immunity, you begin to see outbreaks,
starting with the most contagious diseases. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen:
measles, mumps, and whooping cough outbreaks.2 Empower parents to
communicate with their health care providers about all vaccine options and the
best option for their child. A critical factor shaping parental attitudes to
vaccination is the parents’ interactions with health professionals. An
effective interaction can address the concerns of vaccine supportive parents
and motivate a hesitant parent towards vaccine acceptance.3 Health
literacy is a huge barrier for this program.
Most parents are unaware of positive health behaviors. The largest challenge will be to address
parents in ways that they can understand and increase the parents’ health
knowledge. The benefits of the program
are overall improvement to community health.
Education is an effective health behavior tool. The more parents that are educated, the more
children will be administered proper vaccinations to prevent the spread of
disease. Social media is the main
promotion channel for this initiative.
Advertisements, informationals, and video blogs will be used to inform
parents about Community Immunity and the importance of immunizations.
Secondary
target audience(s)
The secondary target audience is health
care providers.
Secondary
target key strategies (list for each audience)
A critical factor shaping parental
attitudes to vaccination is the parent’s interactions with health
professionals. An effective interaction can address the concerns of vaccine
supportive parents and motivate a hesitant parent towards vaccine acceptance.
Poor communication can contribute to rejection of vaccinations or dissatisfaction
with care. We sought to provide a framework for health professionals when
communicating with parents about vaccination. Health professionals have a
central role in maintaining public trust in vaccination, including addressing
parents’ concerns.3
Encouraging pediatricians to be patient
with skeptical parents is the largest barrier of this project. There is an
increase in pediatricians dismissing parents due to vaccine refusal—11.7% of
pediatricians reported “always dismissing patients for continued vaccine
refusal” in 20132. The major
benefit of the program is patient retention and vaccine administration. Parents will be the channel for information dissemination. The goal is to assist the parent in creating
conversation and creating joint effort to care for the child (ren).
Pretest
strategy (trial of primary target message/channel)
We will pretest the program by launching
it in California and tracking its use using Alexa and Compete (website
statistic tracking tools). Users will be
offered a survey to take addressing effectiveness of the website. Evaluation and
outcome reports will be generated based on the responses from the questionnaire
after the website has been operational for a year. Any necessary changes and improvements will
be implemented prior to the national release of the website.
Theoretical
foundation (model or framework and how to use it in this project)
The theoretical foundation used for this
program is the Persuasion Theory. The
persuasion theory is a mass communication theory that deals with messages aimed
at subtly changing specific behaviors.
Persuasion Theory focuses on framing messages for persuasive
communication to change individual behavior.
Message framing is giving it a context or even suggesting a point of
view or an interpretation with which it is to be understood—whether consciously
or uncounsciously.4 the goal is to change the mindset of skeptical
parents and persuade them to consider vaccine use for their children.
Management
chart
Program
Manager
|
Overall
function of the program
|
Provide
program evaluation to staff and stakeholders
|
Generate
end of year evaluation, generate a plan of action for the following year,
disseminate info to staff and stakeholders
|
Finance
Manager
|
Manage
payroll
|
Provide
overview of payroll costs
|
Release
W-2 for all employees
|
Public
Relations
|
Advertising
|
Launch
new ads
|
End of
year report on effectiveness of ads
|
Financial
Manger
|
Grant
Writing/Soliciting free money
|
Finance
brief/status of finances
|
File
taxes.
|
IT
|
Website
upkeep
|
Survey dissemination
|
Launch
end of year survey
|
Budget
Budget:
$1,500,000
|
|
Initial startup
cost
|
$10,000.00
|
Advertising
|
$120,000.00
|
Payroll
|
$1,325,000.00
|
MISC.
expenses
|
$45, 000
|
SUBTOTAL
|
1,455,000.00
|
Revenue
|
100,000.00
|
TOTAL
|
1,355,000.00
|
- The initial start of the website is estimated to cost $10,000. This cost includes the cost of website design and the cost to launch the site.
- Advertising will cost an estimated $120,000. Social media (Facebook, twitter, Tumblr, etc.) is the main platform that will be used for advertisement. Additionally, money is allocated to improve the websites search ability on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.com. Other advertising will come from healthcare providers and word of mouth from users.
- Individuals included on payroll include public health officials who monitor and answer questions proposed by parents, IT individuals who maintain the website and ensure that the site functions without error, public health officials who conduct research on relevant information to post on the site, and the management team (program manager, financial manager, and public relations manager).
- MISC. expenses is a buffer fund that can be used as needed.
- We anticipate and estimated $100,000 in advertising funds. We hope that eventually this program is able to function successfully on donated funds and funds collected through digital advertising on the website.
Resources
required/needed and available, with sources
Our major resources are CDC and
local/state public health officials. We
will rely heavily on them to provide up to date vaccine information and health
trends based on location.
Issues
of concern/potential problems
Issues of concern include lack of website utilization,
delay in information from local/state officials, and minimal behavior effectiveness. We are weighing heavily on parents seeking
information regarding vaccinations and trusting our website to provide them
with viable information that can assist in their decision making. Furthermore, we are anticipating that after
parents have learned more about immunization, they will decide to allow their
child to receive vaccines.
Evaluation
strategies
Formative
and process
Formative evaluation will take place
before the national launch of the website.
We will use the information collected from the pretest to determine the
effectiveness of the website, what information was most effective, and what
information created more skepticism among the parents. This will allow us to assess the necessity of
certain information and better engage with the target audience.
Process evaluation will begin after the
national launch of the website. This evaluation will focus more on the utilization
of the website using Alexa and Compete. Furthermore, we will poll healthcare
providers in high use areas to analyze immunization trends.
Summative
(outcome and impact)
Semi-annually for the first 5 years and
annually every year following we will evaluate our outcome with information
attainment surveys. The surveys will ask
basic questions to test the health (vaccine) literacy of users, their opinions
of vaccines after visiting the website, and if their decision making process
has become easier because of information obtained from the website. This will
allow us to understand the effectiveness of the website and ensure that its use
influences health behaviors.
References:
- Hough-Telford C, Kimberlin DW, Aban I, et al. Vaccine Delays, Refusals, and Patient Dismissals: A Survey of Pediatricians. Pediatrics. Aug 2016. e20162127; doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-2127. Accessed December 13, 2016.
- Kollipara P. How the anti-vaccine movement is endangering lives. The Washington Post. May 4, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/05/05/how-the-anti-vaccine-movement-is-endangering-lives/?utm_term=.318177c1422f. Accessed December 13, 2016.
- Leask J, Kinnersley P, Jackson C, et al. Communicating with parents about vaccination: a framework for health professionals. BMC Pediatrics. 2012;12:154. doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-12-154. Accessed December 13, 2016.
- Parvanta C, Nelson DE, Parvanta SA, Harner RN. Evaluating a health communication program. In: Essentials of Public Health Communication. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning; 2011:297-310.
