New Brief Provides Recommendations to Strengthen Vaccine Uptake Among College Students
College campuses are environments ripe for the spread of infectious diseases. Yet many U.S. college and university students have not received all the recommended vaccines, making robust vaccination programs critical for higher education institutions.
Releasing today, a new Evidence to Action brief from experts at PolicyLab and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Vaccine Education Center lays out recommendations for college and university health administrators to strengthen vaccine uptake among students.
Access the brief here.
Higher education institutions are in a unique position to support incoming students in the transition to managing their own health care while also improving the day-to-day health of those on their campuses and in neighboring communities. Still, many institutions face challenges in implementing immunization guidelines such as students having limited experience making their own health decisions, variable vaccine requirements and strategies to enforce those requirements, and high cost of storing and delivering vaccines.
From our work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we know the impact of cross-cutting interventions between health care, education, and public health systems to ensure teens are healthy and prepared for adulthood. As students head back to campuses this fall, our collaborative team of adolescent health, vaccine, and policy experts review the challenges faced by higher education institutions in addressing low vaccination rates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, summarize evidence on successful interventions, and provide recommendations for college and university health administrators to partner across systems to strengthen vaccine uptake among students.
Read the full Evidence to Action brief here.