A Public Health Approach to Communicate Risks and Benefits of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Among Patients of Women, Infants, Children (WIC): A Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Abstract Utilization of vaccinations is one of the most effective ways to prevent infectious illness. Routine childhood vaccinations have significantly decreased illnesses and rates of mortality, as they relate to vaccine-preventable diseases. Given an increase in understanding that numerous vaccinations are widely available to protect communities from certain defiant diseases, immunization rates for childhood vaccinations in the United States continue to remain lower than expected. Parental objections to childhood vaccinations have been extensively documented and discussed. It is time to rethink ways to approach parents’ overall education about childhood vaccines-specifically the communication of their risks and benefits associated with their use. The purpose of this quality improvement project is to determine whether a vaccine educational video developed by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2002) will have an effect on parents’ decisions whether or not to vaccinate their children. Does vaccine-specific education (in video form) have an effect on parents’ decisions to vaccinate their children? This study includes a sample of parents (and guardians) enrolled in an urban Women, Infants, Children (WIC) program administered in Charlotte, North Carolina. An educational video was shown during (WIC) approved hours providing parent and/or guardian-centered vaccination information to WIC program participants. Data analysis was performed by comparing a student prepared post intervention survey, approved by the WIC Regional Director, that assessed whether the video intervention had an effect on parental decisions to vaccinate (or not vaccinate) their children. This paper takes a public health approach, in the form of a quality improvement project, meant to determine whether video education can (or does) increase parents’ and/or guardians’ awareness of vaccine-preventable diseases.