Remember MenB”: Impact of Healthcare Provider and Patient Education on Awareness and Understanding of MenB disease and Vaccine Recommendations and Impact on Increasing Vaccination Rates

Confusion remains surrounding healthcare providers’ understanding of a Category B vaccine recommendation, especially with regards to whom the vaccine should be given. This lack of understanding contributes to a lack of discussion with the patient about vaccine and lack of a recommendation for vaccine. Also it is important that adolescents/young adults have an awareness and understanding of meningococcal disease and the availability of meningococcal vaccines. These individuals are gaining independence and may seek medical care independently without their parents being present. Having an understanding of meningococcal disease and vaccines allows then to proactively seek to be vaccinated. However, awareness and understanding in this population is unknown.

The objectives of this study will be to examine the impact of: 1) targeted healthcare provider education on improving the understanding of category B vaccine recommendations, 2) targeted education of adolescents/young adults on meningococcal disease and availability of preventative vaccines, and 3) creation of a 2nd adolescent meningococcal vaccine platform at 16 to 18 years on increasing ACWY booster and MenB vaccination rates. Pre- and post- education information will be obtained by web-based anonymous surveys. For the adolescents/young adults, impact of education will be measured by increased willingness to receive preventative meningococcal vaccines. Interrupted time sequence analysis will be performed on adolescent vaccine records of patients in the Lurie Children’s Hospital CIN and CCPA networks to trend the changes in meningococcal vaccination rates comparing the pre- and post-education periods to measure the impact of education on increasing meningococcal vaccination rates in this age group.