Project VIVA: a multilevel community-based intervention to increase influenza vaccination rates among hard-to-reach populations in New York City

Objectives. We sought to determine whether the work of a community-based participatory research partnership increased interest in influenza vaccination among hard-to-reach individuals in urban settings.Methods. A partnership of researchers and community members carried out interventions for increasing acceptance of influenza vaccination in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, focusing on hard-to-reach populations (e.g., substance abusers, immigrants, elderly, sex workers, and homeless persons) in East Harlem and the Bronx in New York City. Activities targeted the individual, community organization, and neighborhood levels and included dissemination of information, presentations at meetings, and provision of street-based and door-to-door vaccination during 2 influenza vaccine seasons. Participants were recruited via multiple modalities. Multivariable analyses were performed to compare interest in receiving vaccination pre- and postintervention.Results. There was increased interest in receiving the influenza vaccine postintervention (P<.01). Being a member of a hard-to-reach population (P=.03), having ever received an influenza vaccine (P<.01), and being in a priority group for vaccination (P<.01) were also associated with greater interest in receiving the vaccine.Conclusions. Targeting underserved neighborhoods through a multilevel community-based participatory research intervention significantly increased interest in influenza vaccination, particularly among hard-to-reach populations. Such interventions hold promise for increasing vaccination rates annually and in pandemic situations.National guidelines recommend annual influenza vaccination for high-risk groups—specifically, persons 50 years and older and persons of any age with chronic medical conditions and their household contacts.1 Despite these guidelines and the patent benefits of influenza vaccination—including reductions in influenza-related morbidity and mortality, attendant health care costs, and productivity losses2—vaccination rates among adults in the United States remain lower than recommended levels, especially among elderly with high-risk conditions and racial/ ethnic minorities.1^,3^–5Although data are sparse, influenza vaccination rates are particularly low among marginalized hard-to-reach urban populations such as substance abusers, undocumented immigrants, and homebound elderly.6 During the 2004–2005 influenza vaccine shortage, the vaccination rate was 21% among hard-to-reach populations in designated priority groups for vaccination, compared with estimates of 42% among designated priority groups in the general population during this same period.7 Members of these hard-to-reach groups are less likely to access routine health care or have a health care provider.8^–10 Low vaccination rates combined with risk factors and barriers to accessing health care place hard-to-reach populations at particularly high risk for influenza and attendant morbidity.Additionally, the need for improvements in annual influenza coverage is coupled with recent concern for the potential of a human influenza pandemic.11^,12 Unvaccinated persons within the larger population may propagate disease, particularly in the event of a pandemic.2^,13 Consequently, public health officials face mounting pressure to vaccinate persons in all risk groups and to do so in a brief period of time.14^–16 Members of disadvantaged, urban, multiethnic communities may face additional challenges during a pandemic, including increased vulnerability and transmissibility from overcrowded living conditions, reliance on mass transportation, and limited access to health care.17Although there have been some previous efforts to vaccinate high-risk populations, few were community-based.18 Community-based programs that contributed to increased vaccination coverage have included vaccination at syringe exchange sites,19 an immunization “blitz” in a neighborhood with widespread injection drug use,20 interventions in religion-based neighborhood health centers, and public service announcements and mailings targeted to racial/ethnic minority Medicaid populations.21^,22 Interventions in medical settings have included components such as standing orders,23^,24 mailings,25^–27 education,28^–30 targeted advertising,31 and visiting nurse programs.32 Unfortunately, these efforts may have had little impact on hard-to-reach populations, because members of these groups are less likely to access routine health care.In December 2003, members of the Harlem Community and Academic Partnership,33 comprised of representatives from community and academic organizations committed to implementing interventions by using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, formed an intervention working group to address challenges in vaccinating local hard-to-reach populations. Community-based participatory research is a collaborative process among researchers and community members that emphasizes building trust, equitable power sharing, capacity building, and long-term commitment from all involved in the research process.34^–36 The intervention working group, which was comprised of members representing community residents, community-based organizations (CBOs), academic institutions, and the local health department, met regularly throughout the project to develop the research agenda and study design and to guide project implementation and evaluation. Guided by the Harlem Community and Academic Partnership principles of collaboration, the working group adopted a participatory approach to decisionmaking processes. A multilevel study design was chosen to address individual, social, and contextual factors related to access to, and acceptance of, the influenza vaccine among hard-to-reach populations.37^,38 The working group developed methods to target intervention activities to 3 levels: neighborhood, CBO, and individual.The overall goal of the Project VIVA (Venue-Intensive Vaccines for Adults) intervention was to develop, implement, and assess a rapid-vaccination protocol for hard-to-reach populations that would increase interest in vaccination, provide free vaccination during 2 influenza seasons, and establish a model for the rapid vaccination of individuals that could be generalizable to other urban areas. We report the results of Project VIVA, including pre–post surveys in the 8 target areas within East Harlem and the Bronx, New York City, that evaluated whether interest in receiving influenza vaccination changed after intervention.