None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The Gardasil quadrivalent 3-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against genital warts and most cervical cancers, is provided in Victoria through a secondary school program, administered by local government (i.e., councils). In order for a student to be immunised within this program, their parent or guardian must complete and return a vaccine consent card. Unfortunately, approximately 9% of students do not return a consent card, and without further contact from council are prevented from receiving vaccines within the school program. This also occurs when parents/guardians return the consent card with missing or incorrect information leaving follow-up actions necessary for a valid consent. With this backdrop, efforts to improve consent card return rates and data quality have the potential to increase vaccination rates. The aim of this trial was to assess whether these outcomes could be improved by modifying using a new consent card (card incorporated plain language and social norming principles) alongside a new mode of card delivery. Specifically, DHHS distributed the consent cards directly to schools along with a letter to the school Principal and the school immunisation coordinator (the letters also incorporated social norming principles). They did this during December 2016. They also distributed a smaller batch of cards early in the school year (February 2017) so schools could re-distribute the consent card to any students who had not returned a consent card. It was hypothesized that this intervention (i.e., new and card and mode of delivery) would 1) increase the likelihood that a parent would complete and return the consent card, 2) the parent would be more likely to complete the card with no missing or incorrect information, and 3) more students would receive the HPV vaccine at the first school visit.
Interventions
Background: In order for a student to be immunised within the secondary school vaccine program, their parent or guardian must complete and return a vaccine consent card. Unfortunately, approximately 9% of students do not return a consent card, and without further contact from council are prevented from receiving vaccines within the school program. This also occurs when parents/guardians return the consent card with missing or incorrect information leaving follow-up actions necessary for a valid
Background: In order for a student to be immunised within the secondary school vaccine program, their parent or guardian must complete and return a vaccine consent card. Unfortunately, approximately 9% of students do not return a consent card, and without further contact from council are prevented from receiving vaccines within the school program. This also occurs when parents/guardians return the consent card with missing or incorrect information leaving follow-up actions necessary for a valid consent. With this backdrop, efforts to improve consent card return rates and data quality have the potential to increase vaccination rates. Within the school vaccine program, state government (i.e., Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)) distribute the consent card to local government (i.e., councils). Each council then distributes the consent cards to the schools in their area. The school immunisation coordinator (i.e., person at the school responsible for managing the vaccine program at the school) distributes and collects the consent cards from parents/students and then council come back to the school to collect the returned cards. Intervention (arm A): A new consent card was trialled (card incorporated plain language and social norming principles) alongside a new mode of card delivery. Specifically, DHHS distributed the consent cards directly to schools along with a letter to the school Principal and the school immunisation coordinator (the letters also incorporated social norming principles). They did this during December 2016. They also distributed a smaller batch of cards early in the school year (February 2017) so schools could re-distribute the consent card to any students who had not returned a consent card. The letters were personalized (i.e., the name of the school Principal / school immunization coordinator). Please find the new consent card and letters attached to the original ANZCTR registration record.
Sponsors
Monash University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
10 Years to 14 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
From the 79 councils across Victoria, only councils that have at least two schools who: 1) had not received their 2017 consent cards 2) were expected to have more than 20 students enrolled in year 7 in 2017. Schools that fit within this description (within participating councils) were included in the study.
Exclusion criteria
There were no unique exclusion criteria for any participant group (i.e., school Principals, school immunization coordinators, students) beyond that outline above in the key inclusion criteria section.
Outcome results
None listed