Vaccination is one of the most effective medical interventions that save millions of lives from diseases and suffering. It reduces the level of social inequality, increases access to health services in general, and even helps to reduce poverty. To ensure a high and fair level of vaccination services, it is necessary to understand the obstacles faced by population groups where this level is insufficient. This academic work focuses on approaches designed to improve health among young people.
To make vaccination accessible, acceptable, convenient, and attractive for young people, it is necessary to consider both individual behavioral factors and contextual and social mechanisms that influence their behavior. Psychological analysis shows that young people use, often unconsciously, simplified rules of thumb to process incoming information and make decisions. Such mechanisms are helpful because they allow young people to react quickly to situations that arise in everyday life. However, they can lead to a distorted perception of risk and a bias towards vaccination and health-related information.
When developing interventions to increase the use of vaccination services among young people, it is necessary to consider these psychological mechanisms and how they affect individual behavior. At the same time, the above considerations should not encourage health authorities to focus only on personal aspects (Paul et al., 2021). Moreover, they should not rely on providing information as the only way to influence young people’s vaccination behavior. Such an approach will lead to only minor positive behavioral shifts. It is based on the assumption that if young people have sufficient knowledge or receive well-thought-out messages, they will inevitably make the “right” decision.
However, it should be noted that other essential influences on behavioral aspects are ignored. Scientific psychology proves that directly motivating young people to get vaccinated can have a more significant impact than changing what they think and how they relate to vaccinations in theory (Dubé et al., 2018). Therefore, systemic factors such as policy, provision of medical services, costs, and logistics are essential aspects of influencing the behavior of young people to vaccination. One of the most effective approaches is the Tailoring Immunization Programs (TIP) developed by the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
The Tailoring Immunization Programs
Tailoring Immunization Program considers national and global health goals and contributes to their achievement. The solution of ambitious tasks to ensure immunization compliance with the principles of justice requires specific actions of both young people-patients and medical workers. TIP contributes to determining the optimal ways to support and motivate such actions, helping health authorities achieve their goals (Dubé et al., 2018). TIP processes aim to achieve a high and appropriate level of vaccination services, and the desire to ensure equality in vaccination issues is a vital principle of the TIP approach.
TIP covers individual and social elements and offers a conceptual framework and methodology for analyzing and describing a wide range of factors affecting vaccination rates. In such a conceptual framework, the most crucial moment in the decision-making process on vaccination is the patient’s contact or the child’s parents with medical professionals (Dubé et al., 2018). This approach favorably changes the attitude of this population group to vaccination, increases the degree of trust in medical professionals, and positively affects the level of social responsibility.
TIP is based on objective data from medical anthropology, psychology, sociology, and communication theory. In such processes, to obtain context-specific information and ideas, national, regional, and global data are analyzed, and the results of proven research methods (Dubé et al., 2018). Interventions aimed at increasing the level of use of vaccination services are based on evidence and not on subjective assumptions or traditional solutions.
This approach minimizes inequalities in the health status of young people, as it is based on proper vaccination, taking into account the economic, ethnic, and cultural differences of people. It does not ignore the critical components of public health in modern society and the most vital issues of social justice (Dubé et al., 2018). TIP is the result of the hard work of the World Health Organization aimed at a new way of thinking about the direction of the policy of eliminating any inequality in the health status of any population group.
The Importance of Interdisciplinary Teams
Monitoring and evaluation allow determining to what extent interventions are successful and outline ways to improve further. The participation of interdisciplinary medical professionals in strengthening young people’s health is significant since such interaction contributes to the full implementation of immunization programs (Paul et al., 2021). It should be mentioned that the main objectives of immunization programs are equity, people-centered, evidence-based, integrated, and participatory. In turn, the main tasks of interdisciplinary medical workers are:
- The formulation of individual health promotion goals and objectives.
- The formation of an individual health promotion program.
- The selection of criteria for the effectiveness and safety of an individual health promotion program.
- The implementation of an individual health promotion program (Paul et al., 2021).
To make vaccination possible, desirable, and positive for young people, interdisciplinary health professionals interact with them and listen to them. In this way, they respond to the needs of young people and form policies accordingly, organize vaccination services and carry out effective communication (Dubé et al., 2018). Understanding the interests of young people allows interdisciplinary medical professionals to adapt services, strategies, and investments to their needs.
Joint work contributes to forming an atmosphere of ownership and ensures shared responsibility. The convening of a group of stakeholders who usually do not participate in structured discussions on vaccination issues can be of additional benefit, which will provide new insights that are valuable for both participants and organizers (Paul et al., 2021). Various levels of interaction with stakeholders are provided, for example, through seminars, in-depth interviews, and the activities of special working groups.
References
Dubé, E., Leask, J., Wolff, B., Hickler, B., Balaban, V., Hosein, E., & Habersaat, K. (2018). The WHO Tailoring Immunization Programmes (TIP) approach: Review of implementation to date.Vaccine, 36(11), 1509-1515. Web.
Paul, E., Steptoe, A., & Fancourt, D. (2021). Attitudes towards vaccines and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19: Implications for public health communications.The Lancet Regional Health-Europe, 1, 100012. Web.