Anushka Patil
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Research Mentor(s): Tsu-Yin Wu
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Eastern Michigan University School of Nursing / Other
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 7 (4:40pm – 5:30pm)
Authors: Anushka Patil, Dr. Tsu-Yin Wu
Abstract
When it comes to creating long-term change, students are the voice of the future. Understanding their perceptions regarding social issues is a large part of making informed political decisions and campaigns that bring about unity, safety, and trust. Further, vaccinations are of utmost importance for protecting communities. While there are existing studies regarding barriers to vaccine uptake; nevertheless, most focus on those specifically affecting youth populations. The goal of this UROP study is to gain insights into the hesitations, misconceptions, attitudes, and barriers that keep youth/high school students from getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and the Influenza virus. Eastern Michigan University’s Center for Health Disparities Innovations and Studies (CHDIS) will garner student perspectives through a series of open forum events to assess vaccination barriers and the policy and education reform on this topic. These student open forums will take place in high schools in metro Detroit area; forums will be advertised within the districts beforehand. CHDIS’s Vaccination Team will lead student conversations on vaccination issues, and the open forum will be recorded. Discussion during these open forums will focus on young adults’ perceptions of perceived virus severity, trust in the vaccines, and reputability of media vaccine information. CHDIS aims to build off of prior knowledge gained on adult vaccine acceptance through this study geared towards young adults. Based on the results, CHDIS will implement educational material and resources within these populations and foster government vaccination campaigns catered to preventing the found obstacles.
