The Shot College Students Don’t Like: The Flu Vaccine: Will Information Persuade Students to Become Vaccinated?

Abstract

Every year, the United States experiences an epidemic of influenza. The flu vaccine is an effective way to protect against the virus, and yet college students, who are at an increased risk of getting the flu because of their environment, resist becoming vaccinated. In recent years, an anti-vaccination movement has taken root due to several misconceptions about vaccinations. The purpose of this research is to test whether or not receiving the facts about influenza and the flu vaccine would persuade college students to receive the flu vaccine. This research was performed through a questionnaire, which was completed by 171 college students in a one-group stratified random sample. For the 121 (70.2%) participants who had not received the 2017-2018 flu vaccine prior to the survey, it was found that education did have a statistically significant effect on increasing the likelihood that they would receive next year’s vaccine. Further, this researcher found that targeting flu vaccination campaign efforts at teenagers or parents with young children, and teaching students about reliable information sources, could have a great effect on the number of college students who are vaccinated.