 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Edgar G Villanueva, BSPH, MHA Cand and Kathy M Ford, MSSW. CDC National Immunization Information Hotline, American Social Health Association, PO Box 13827, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, 919.361.4851, edgvil@ashastd.org
Purpose: The CDC National Immunization Information Hotline (NIIH), operated by the American Social Health Association, began providing information, referrals and publications, to English and Spanish-speaking callers in the United States and Puerto Rico in March 1997. NIIH is staffed by Health Communication Specialists trained in immunization information, communication skills and data collection.
Summarized Description: Calls are randomly selected to be surveyed for content and demographic information. One out of five calls is surveyed for the English service.
Results: From January 2000 through September 2001, 167,500 calls were answered on the English line. Of these calls, 11% (19,105) were from people over age 60. From the surveyed calls, people over the age of 60 were concerned about specific vaccinations, immunization schedules, conflicting information, adverse events and the safety of vaccines. Female callers were the majority (76%) of the over 60 callers. Most senior callers received some college or were college graduates (57%). Most seniors responded that they receive their immunization information from a health care provider or health clinic (69%).
Conclusions: By the year 2050 there will be 80 million people over age 60 in the US. NIIH provides information tailored to these callers’ needs and offers resources such as publications and referrals to immunization related agencies (local/state/national). NIIH is an instrumental tool in bridging the gap between those who may or may not have the resources to acquire information about immunizations or vaccine preventable diseases.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Elderly, Immunizations
Related Web page: www.vaccines.ashastd.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: CDC National Immunization Information Hotline
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.