Pneumococcal Disease Prevention

A Multilevel Approach to Understanding and Reducing Missed Opportunities for Vaccination among Adolescents with Chronic Medical Conditions

Vaccination coverage is suboptimal for all adolescents, yet particularly concerning for adolescents with chronic medical conditions who frequently fail to receive routinely recommended vaccines such as human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and other indicated vaccines such as pneumococcal polysaccharide (PPV23) vaccine. Vaccination of these adolescents is crucial from an individual perspective given their increased risk of infection and associated complications. It is also important from a public health perspective given the growing incidence of this population and need for high coverage levels to ensure a population-­‐ wide impact. Since many adolescents with chronic medical conditions receive health care services, yet remain under-­‐immunized, further elucidation of the unique factors contributing to missed opportunities for vaccination is needed. In the proposed study, we seek to identify barriers to HPV and PPV23 vaccination in this population and address these using an innovative technology-­‐based intervention. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to increase HPV dose 1 (HPV1) and PPV23 vaccination coverage among adolescents with chronic medical conditions.p>