School Located Adolescent Vaccination Study

Examination of the Effectiveness of Adolescent Vaccines Given in Schools

The provision of adolescent vaccination in a school setting will be feasible and acceptable to parents as evidenced by the number and percentage of students immunized within each school compared to those in schools without a program. The likelihood of vaccination for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (Tdap), human papillomavirus (HPV), and meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4) and all three combined) among eligible students enrolled in schools with a comprehensive school-based immunization program will be significantly higher than that of students enrolled in schools without a school-based immunization program.

Inclusion Criteria:

• 2000 (1000 at intervention schools and 1000 in control schools) randomly selected students enrolled in 6th - 8th grade at randomly selected schools
• students who appear to be in need of one or more immunizations of interest at the beginning of the school year
• students enrolled in school by October 1st registration deadline will be included in the analysis

Exclusion Criteria:

• students who appear to have had all immunizations of interest at the beginning of the school year
• students enrolled after the October 1 school registration deadline will be excluded from the analysis
• students enrolled in grades other than 6th, 7th, or 8th grade will not be eligible to participate