Abstract
Background: College students have cited inconvenience, ease of forgetting, and lack of time as barriers to influenza (flu) vaccine receipt. We hypothesized that “pop-up” clinics and live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) would facilitate delivery and align with preferences of college students. Methods: During the 2023–2024 flu season, undergraduate participants were recruited to receive LAIV at 5 “pop-up” clinics across a large midwestern campus. Individuals who received LAIV were approached to complete a Likert-scale survey asking about their experience. Results: Across all clinics, 337 individuals received LAIV and 129 completed the survey. Respondents reported that “pop-up” clinics decreased barriers to vaccination. Regarding LAIV acceptance, 44.2% noted a preference for LAIV while 46.5% noted no preference between intranasal and injectable vaccines. Importantly, over 27% of students stated they would not have received vaccine without this “pop-up” clinic option. Conclusion(s): “Pop-up” clinics and LAIV effectively alleviate barriers to facilitate flu vaccination for college students.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of American College Health |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - 2025 |
Funding
FluMist vaccines were provided by AstraZeneca as part of research support (21-21309/JHAVERI). Additional research costs were covered by the Grants for Emerging Researchers/Clinicians Mentorship (G.E.R.M.) Program within the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Additional support was provided by Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, supporting REDCap, and funded by the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Grant Number UL1TR001422. Thank you to Dr. Kristin Abbott, Amber Parish, Johanna Harmon, and the team at Northwestern Medicine Student Health Services for their continued support in designing and coordinating this project. Thank you to Erica Ruvalcaba for helping to coordinate delivery and storage of the vaccines. Thank you to Kevin Meier at Northwestern University Health Promotion and Wellness for helping to promote the flu vaccination clinics. Thank you to Deb Schmidt-Rogers and Rick Cazzato at Northwestern Residential Services for help coordinating flu vaccine clinics. Thank you to Feinberg medical student volunteer vaccinators Erik Wu, Tulsi Patel, Lillian Bui, Ryan Lu, and administrative volunteers Malini Jhaveri and Gerald Guerrieri. Finally, thank you to all students who participated in the surveys. Casey Benzaken has no conflicts of interest. Leena Mithal has no conflicts of interest and received salary support from the NIH (NIAID K23AI139337) and research funding from Gerber Foundation and Thrasher Research Fund. Ravi Jhaveri is a consultant for AstraZeneca, Seqirus, Sanofi, Gilead and receives research support from GSK, royalties from UptoDate and an editorial stipend from the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. Tina Tan is a member of the vaccine advisory boards for: Sanofi Pasteur, Pfizer, GSK, Merck, Moderna, and Novartis. She has research grant funding from GSK and Sanofi Pasteur and is chair of the DSMC for Next Generation Pneumococcal vaccines for Pfizer.The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of The United States of America and received approval from the Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Keywords
- College students
- LAIV
- flu vaccine
- influenza vaccine
- public health
- “pop-up” clinic
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health