According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the engineering profession with the highest demand in 2021 is biomedical engineering (BME) (BLS, January 2021). Biomedical engineers combine engineering principles with medical and biological sciences to design and create equipment, devices, computer systems, and software used in healthcare (BLS, 2021).…

Objective: To evaluate college students' awareness of an educational initiative to increase campus influenza vaccination rates and strategies to improve it. Participants: Students attending a large public comprehensive university. Methods: An investigator-developed, online survey evaluated awareness of the initiative, the students' perception of…

Background: Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and the staff who support them were largely in-person during the 2021-2022 school year, despite their continued vulnerability to infection with SARS-CoV-2. This qualitative study aimed to understand continued perceptions of weekly SARS-CoV-2 screening testing of students…

Objective: The purpose of this project was to pilot and determine the outcomes of a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary human papillomavirus awareness and vaccination campaign within a university community. Participants: Students, faculty, and staff of a large urban Midwest-based public university. Methods: This consisted of five key interventions:…

To examine mental health status, COVID-19 vaccine intention and barriers among college students in the U.S. Participants: Students (n = 337) registered at a large public university in 2021. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data were collected online and analyzed using independent samples t test, chi-square test, and one-way ANOVA. Results: Compared…

The COVID-19 pandemic had an immense impact on communities around the world. We know that new epidemic-prone diseases will emerge in the future. Consequently, it is important to investigate what impact the current pandemic had on school children's understanding of infectious diseases in order to develop biology education based on that novel…

Games are a powerful tool for learning, offering unique benefits for student engagement, particularly when addressing complex or challenging topics. The general public's understanding of how vaccines are made is limited and the general public is unaware of the comprehensive research, development, and safety measures that are inherent in vaccine…

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks forced families to decide the safest and most effective learning environments for their children because of the virus's threat to health and life. Hence, because of the nationwide school closure, policymakers have raised concerns about the missing children cases-those who have not enrolled in school at all because…

Health misinformation is a problem on social media, and more understanding is needed about how users cognitively process it. In this study, participants' accuracy in determining whether 60 health claims were true (e.g., "Vaccines prevent disease outbreaks") or false (e.g., "Vaccines cause disease outbreaks") was assessed. The…

Objective: The interventions colleges use to help students be compliant with vaccinations is unknown. This study describes colleges' use of practices consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations to encourage student body vaccination. Participants: Participants were a convenience sample of 136 student health…

Background: Pregnant women are at increased risk of complications from flu, but uptake of flu vaccination is below 75% targets. Evidence suggests that changing illness risk appraisals may increase vaccination behaviour. In 2018-2019, researchers, public health specialists, and pregnant women co-designed a short animation targeting (unhelpful)…

Since the spring of 2021, nearly 700 colleges and universities in the U.S. have mandated that their students become vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. We leverage rich data on colleges' vaccination policies and semester start dates, along with a variety of county-level public health outcomes, to provide the first estimates of the effects of…

To better prepare undergraduate students as informed citizens, they need skills to evaluate and interpret scientific data that are relevant to real world scenarios. Socioscientific issues are typically complicated or debatable issues that require individuals to evaluate their background knowledge and make decisions with respect to social and…

In order for societies to normalize in educational, economic, social and mental health areas, the COVID-19 pandemic must be ended as soon as possible. Currently, the most critical factor in eliminating the pandemic seems to be the vaccine. Vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions and is a cornerstone for communicable…

Background: Vaccine misinformation has been widely spread on social media, but attempts to combat it have not taken advantage of the attributes of social media platforms for health education. Methods: The objective was to test the efficacy of moderated social media discussions about COVID-19 vaccines in private Facebook groups. Unvaccinated U.S.…