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Health Promotion Programme
Health Promotion Programme
Introduction
Influenza is one of the leading causes of death in the world. The disease primarily affects
older adult, children between six months to eight years and pregnant women. Influenza
vaccination has proven to be effective in averting influenza related problems. However,
vaccinations rates are low across the globe thus the need to sensitize people on the importance of
taking vaccines. Therefore, the topic I have chosen is identifying the appropriate health
promotion program or intervention for increasing uptake of the influenza vaccine. The program I
have identified is educational intervention which entails disseminating information either oral or
written to enhance awareness and knowledge on the benefits of influenza vaccine. The
educational intervention program will involve distributing materials such as posters, fliers, and
newsletters. Additionally, it will involve training sessions such as meetings, presentations and
lectures. Thus, in this paper, I will cover the upstream and downstream determinants of uptake of
influenza vaccine, the goals of the program, and health equity considerations of the program and
how the program will evaluated.
Upstream and Downstream Determinants of Uptake of Influenza Vaccine
As mentioned earlier, the uptake of influenza vaccine is quite low as a result of various
factors. These factors can be described as upstream and downstream determinants. They include
lack of awareness, inaccessibility of the vaccine, confidence, complacency and convenience
barriers. These factors must be addressed in order to ensure that vaccine uptake increases. Thus,
the educational intervention intends to address these determinants as discussed below.
Lack of Awareness
People may be willing to take the vaccines but they are not aware of its importance.
When people do not know the importance of vaccines, they tend to be reluctant leading to low
rates of vaccine intake (Baum & Fisher, 2011). Populations must be made aware of the risks
associated with influenza. These risks include myocarditis, encephalitis and multi-organ failure
hence it is evident that the disease poses severe health risks that must be addressed before it is
too late. The only way to avoid these complications is to get vaccinated. Once people are aware
of this, they will not hesitate to take the vaccines and improve their health. Therefore, lack of
awareness is one of the leading factors that hinder individuals from taking vaccines. The
educational intervention is an ideal strategy of ensuring that people get the right information
regarding the importance of taking the vaccine.
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Convenience
If people are able to comprehend the purpose of vaccination in terms of health and
language literacy, then they are likely to be vaccinated. Additionally, if they believe in the
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quality of vaccination service, they would show up in large numbers to get the vaccination.
Nevertheless, if the time and location for getting the vaccination is appropriate, they would
definitely go for the vaccination (Malekafzali et al., 2021). Therefore, the intervention program
will aim at educating people on how they can interact with service providers to enhance the
quality of vaccination service and how they can easily access the services without interrupting
their daily routines.
Goals for the Educational Program/ Intervention
The overall goal of the program is to create awareness on the importance of taking
influenza vaccine and increase the number of individuals getting vaccinated. The target group
will be older adults, children and pregnant women. The program’s aim is to make these people
aware of the benefits that come with being vaccinated. Once they know the importance, they will
not resist or hesitate being vaccinated. Other goals include enhancing behavioral and social
drivers hence pushing people to go for vaccinations (Xiaoju et al., 2020). For instance, the
intervention will aim at improving people’s confidence on the vaccine in terms of its benefits,
safety and trust. The benefits and safety of the vaccine should be clearly highlighted to enhance
confidence and encourage more people to go for the vaccine.
The other goal is to promote social processes whereby family members, religious leaders,
and health workers will be motivated to encourage people to go for vaccinations. These people
have the power to influence people to make certain decisions. Therefore, the program aims at
reaching to these people and encouraging them to support community members and persuade
them to be vaccinated. Nevertheless, the program aims at addressing practical issues such as the
availability, affordability, ease of access and service quality (Ellingson et al., 2019). Individuals
may have problems with the availability of the vaccine or ease of access hence, the program will
address these issues and help the community understand how the vaccine can be accessed easily
without straining or spending more resources.
The diagram below represents the program’s desired goals.
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disease prevalence. Detailed research methods are usually used to assess long-term effects of the
program. Therefore, the evaluation process plays an essential role in ensuring that the
programme meets its objectives. If the objectives are not met, adjustments can be made to make
the programme appropriate and attain the desired results.
Type of Evaluation What needs to be measured How it will be measured
Process The effectiveness of the Observation and interviews
educational materials and are appropriate for measuring
content. In that case, the type, the effectiveness of the
quantity and quality of the educational process
educational materials and
activities will be evaluated.
Impact Thinking and feeling Interviews, observations and
(attitudes, knowledge, focus group discussions can be
awareness), social processes used to measure the impact of
(support from family members the educational materials and
and religious leaders, gender activities.
equity)
Outcome Motivation, practical issues Surveys are used to measure
(availability, ease of access, to determine the short-term
service quality, respect from and long-term impacts of the
health workers) programme.
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References
Baum, F., & Fisher, M. (2011). Are the national preventive health initiatives likely to reduce
health inequities?. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 17(4), 320-326.
Brillo, E., Tosto, V., & Buonomo, E. (2023). Interventions to increase uptake of influenza
vaccination in pregnancy: A systematic review and meta ‐analysis. International Journal
of Gynecology & Obstetrics.
Ellingson, M. K., Dudley, M. Z., Limaye, R. J., Salmon, D. A., O’Leary, S. T., & Omer, S. B.
(2019). Enhancing uptake of influenza maternal vaccine. Expert review of
vaccines, 18(2), 191-204.
Malekafzali, H., Eftekhari, M. B., Hejazi, F., Khojasteh, T., Noot, R. H., Falahat, K., & Faridi, T.
(2021). The effectiveness of educational intervention in the health promotion in elderly
people. Iranian journal of public health, 39(2), 18.
McKenzie, J. F., Neiger, B. L., & Thackeray, R. (2022). Planning, implementing and evaluating
health promotion programs. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Wong, V. W. Y., Fong, D. Y. T., Lok, K. Y. W., Wong, J. Y. H., Sing, C., Choi, A. Y. Y., ... &
Tarrant, M. (2016). Brief education to promote maternal influenza vaccine uptake: A
randomized controlled trial. Vaccine, 34(44), 5243-5250.
Xiaoju, Z. H. O. U., Xuequn, Z. H. A. O., Jun, L. I. U., & Wenjie, Y. A. N. G. (2020).
Effectiveness of educational intervention on influenza vaccine uptake: a meta-analysis of
randomized controlled trials. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 49(12), 2256.