Few ASU students decided to get the $10 H1N1 vaccination on campus last semester, and some student researchers are working to figure out why.
Amanda Vansteelandt, a social science and health doctoral candidate, led research focusing on the level of acceptance of the H1N1 vaccine and the beliefs and social influences surrounding undergraduate students’ vaccination decisions.
The research was developed during a class of Vansteelandt’s that discussed measuring and studying the change in health beliefs and behaviors.
“There was just this opportunity that came up because of the H1N1 influenza outbreak,” she said.
There was also a vaccination program developed at ASU that came out in the fall. Because of this, the study focused on vaccinations at the Tempe campus and the motivations for students to get the vaccine in the fall semester.
“This is particularly interesting because young adults under 25 are a new at-risk age group,” Vansteelandt said. “Most of the people getting really sick were actually otherwise healthy young people.”
Many of the people involved in the study are part of the Social Networks, Cooperation and Health project, part of the Late Lessons From Early History research program in ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
The study looked at theories of health behavior uptake, or the acceptance of a new treatment or product. The theories on why people decide to receive or reject the vaccine are habit, social influence, risk perception and perceived costs and barriers.
Results of the three surveys that students from introductory global health classes took included that habit is not a good predictor of vaccination uptake and that social influence affected young adults’ decisions.
“What your health practitioner suggested you do and what your family was doing was a social influence on people,” Vansteelandt said, “but your peers weren’t really a social influence.”
The survey also found that perceived risk was another good predictor of who would get the vaccine, but costs and barriers weren’t, she said.
Surveys were sent before, during and after ASU’s vaccination campaign in the fall. The results found that main sources of vaccination information were from professors, family members and ASU Health Services.
The most trusted sources of information included health practitioners, the Centers for Disease Control, professors, family members, ASU Health Services and the World Health Organization.
Vansteelandt said it was surprising that family members showed up on both lists.
“One of the things I suggest to ASU Health Services is that targeting family members is a better way of encouraging students to get the vaccination,” she said.
There were 147 participants for the first survey and 123 for the second and third survey. The last two surveys found that 21 students were vaccinated and 90 weren’t.
Those who initially reported that they intended to get vaccinated were more likely to follow through with the vaccination.
Daniel Hruschka, an assistant anthropology professor, is the principal investigator of the study.
“[Vansteelandt] was really the lead on this study,” Hruschka said. “She really pushed it forward and did an excellent job of it. It’s a perfect example of how a motivated student can do very interesting work.”
He said they might repeat the study to find more conclusive results.
Another student, Elizabeth Fox, is working on a separate project for her honors thesis that delves into in-depth interviews that will find out more about students’ specific reasoning related to the vaccination that the survey couldn’t answer, he said.
Fox, a global health senior, is currently conducting interviews with 30 students about the H1N1 virus and the vaccine.
There are also people who are anxious and don’t trust the vaccine, since they believe it was developed too quickly without enough research, Fox said.
Fox talked to some people who got the vaccine but still didn’t trust it, she said.
“One woman was pregnant and it was at the recommendation of her doctor,” Fox said. “If she hadn’t had been pregnant, she wouldn’t have gotten it.”
Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu
