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Curriculum developed to improve vaccine uptake
BETHESDA, Md. — Researchers are developing a new curriculum to educate children and adolescents about immunization to reduce vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccination rates for this and future generations, according to findings presented here.
Despite advances in vaccine technology and successful elimination of diseases such as smallpox, polio, measles and rubella from the United States and much of the rest of the world, resistance to immunization remains a significant problem, according to Edward B. Lewin, MD, of Georgetown University School of Medicine.
“What we’re presently doing to promote immunization is not adequately improving vaccine acceptance or lowering vaccine hesitancy …” Lewin said during a presentation. “It’s actually going in the wrong direction. We need a new approach.”
As a result, Lewin and colleagues launched the Vaccine Education Project, an interactive curriculum focused on educating children, not adults, on the science of vaccination. The project is based on the following concepts:
- Educate children about vaccine science so they can make informed decisions about vaccination for themselves and eventually their own children;
- Develop a curriculum that incorporates the use of iPods, social media and a website, intended to be “interactive and fun”;
- Deliver the curriculum at home to avoid taking up class time;
- Coordinate with professional educators;
- Assess the efficacy of the curriculum by measuring students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward immunization.
The curriculum originally consisted of 13 videos to inform students on vaccination. More than 2,000 science teachers were surveyed about the videos in a study conducted by the National Science Teachers Association; 72% said they were “very supportive” of the project. Up to 27% of science teachers expected “pushback” from parents regarding the curriculum, but only 3% of those teachers would be dissuaded from promoting it.
For the second phase of the project, researchers will convert the curriculum from its original video format to an interactive e-book platform. Lewin and colleagues intend to conduct additional focus groups and test the curriculum in inner city and suburban school districts with personal vaccine exemption rates higher than 5% — both with high- and low-performing schools. The researchers will gauge seventh- and eighth-grade students’ knowledge of vaccines before and after the curriculum is introduced.
Lewin said after the curriculum’s efficacy in improving vaccine knowledge has been demonstrated, it will be introduced in school districts across the United States.
For more information:
Lewin E. Abstract #S27. Presented at: Annual Conference on Vaccine Research; April 28-30, 2014; Bethesda, Md.
Disclosure: Lewin serves as a consultant or adviser for Biological Mimetics Inc.