Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107658

Sarah Sisco, MPH, MSSW¹, Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH², Danielle C. Ompad, PhD², Kay Glidden, RN³, Erica Phillips, MD, MS⁴, Shannon Blaney, MPH², Micaela Coady, MPH³, and David Vlahov, PhD⁵. (1) New York Academy of Medicine, Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, 55 West 125th Street, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10027, 212-419-3590, ssisco@nyam.org, (2) Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, New York Academy of Medicine, 55 West 125th Street, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10027, (3) Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, New York Academy of Medicine, 55 West 125th Street, 13th Floor, New York City, NY 10027, (4) Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 525 East 68th Street, Box #46, New York, NY 10021, (5) Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies (CUES), New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029

Although vaccination has been a standard part of the public health armamentarium for decades, low vaccination coverage persists among poor, urban populations. Among those who are "hard-to-reach," such as elderly shut-ins, homeless, and substance users, vaccination rates are even lower. Programs that can improve vaccination rates in these groups may substantially reduce population morbidity and mortality. Together with members of the Harlem Community and Academic Partnership (H-CAP), researchers from the Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies (CUES) at the New York Academy of Medicine designed an outreach-based pilot program to deliver free vaccines to persons in their homes. Project VIVA has used community-based partnership and innovative sampling techniques to: a) enumerate hard-to-reach populations in eight neighborhoods of East Harlem and the Bronx, b) identify structural and personal barriers to vaccination and health care, c) deliver vaccines to hard-to-reach populations in these neighborhoods, and d) generalize methods developed from Project VIVA to other communities and other populations. A comparison of the results from four enumeration methods, as well as challenges and accomplishments of delivering free flu vaccines during a national shortage, will be discussed. Recommendations to improve efficiency of community-based, door-to-door health programs in the U.S. will also be addressed.

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