BriefsAssociation of State Laws and Healthcare Workers’ Influenza Vaccination Rates
Section snippets
Background
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has long recommended annual influenza vaccination for all healthcare workers (HCW) to reduce the spread of influenza, and decrease staff illness and absenteeism,1 and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requires that all accredited institutions offer influenza vaccination to staff.2 Previously stagnant, HCW influenza vaccination rates have been gradually increasing over the past several seasons (49% in
Data Sources
Primary data included the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 2000-2011 public use sample adult files. To merge the NHIS data with state law data, state identifiers were necessary. State identifier is a restricted variable in the NHIS data, therefore, the data were accessed through the National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center.
The NHIS is a cross-sectional household interview survey conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau for the NCHS, which collects self-reported data
Selected Descriptive Statistics of Health Care Workers in the United States
The overall influenza vaccination rate for HCWs in 2000-2005 (weighted N=15,971,315) was 22.5% and in 2006-2011 (weighted N=14,983,857) was 50.9% (P<0.001; data not shown). Only Maine and New Hampshire had laws regarding influenza vaccination of HCWs during 2000-2005 while 19 states enacted such laws during 2006-2011 (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
Discussion
Previous research has demonstrated a clear and marked effect of individual hospital policies on HCW influenza vaccination rates in acute care facilities.16, 17 In a direct comparison of hospital policy and state law based on national survey data, state laws were ineffective in the presence of hospital policies mandating vaccination.18 Few studies have examined the direct effect of state law on HCW influenza vaccination rates. In a recent study using 2009-2010 data, from the Behavioral Risk
Conclusion
Despite a growing number of states with HCW influenza vaccination laws, few state laws mandate vaccination, hence lack the more powerful impact of individual facility policies requiring HCW vaccination. However, state law may be a viable option for improving HCW vaccine uptake especially in states where the health care environment is not conducive to individual facility-based mandates.
Acknowledgement
This research was conducted with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Law Research program, Grant #68394. The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the funding agency and the Research Data Center, the National Center for Health Statistics, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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2020, International Journal of Women's DermatologyCitation Excerpt :Mandated vaccination requirements have been shown to be highly successful. For example, influenza vaccination rates in HCWs have significantly increased when health care institution-based mandates have been implemented in conjunction with government-mandated vaccination requirements (Lin et al, 2016; Wang et al, 2017). All trainees, regardless of sex, should be appropriately vaccinated prior to matriculation in health professional programs, and all HCWs and trainees should demonstrate proof of current immunity prior to working at new sites or institutions.
Association of State Laws With Influenza Vaccination of Hospital Personnel
2019, American Journal of Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :It is difficult to compare these results directly with the current findings as each study used different measures of HCP vaccination and presence of state laws as well as different analytic techniques. Lin et al.25 included certain vaccination promotion strategies outlined in state laws (e.g., requirements to educate HCP, document or report HCP vaccination status, or formally document vaccine declinations) in their scoring schema whereas the current study examined vaccination promotion and other activities at the hospital level and independently of state laws. Both studies found generally positive effects of state laws on HCP influenza vaccination uptake; the current study further quantifies these effects by separately examining the impact of different types of laws on HCP influenza vaccination in a much larger data set of facility-reported vaccination data and accounting for the strong effects of facility-level vaccination requirements for HCP.
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2017, Journal of Hospital InfectionCitation Excerpt :While the vaccination rate in Hong Kong appeared to be higher than that in various cities in Mainland China and Thailand [25,26], it was considerably lower than that in developed nations such as the USA and Canada [27,28]. The higher rate in the latter countries could be related to the enforcement of compulsory vaccination in some states and provinces [18,19]. In Hong Kong, implementation of a mandatory vaccination policy remains controversial, and there are concerns from HCWs [29].
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2021, Annals of Internal MedicineCurrent understandings of the impact of mandatory vaccination laws in Europe
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