CAMP HILL, Pa. — The findings of a national consumer survey on immunizations has led Rite Aid Corp. to launch Vaccine Central, a new online platform to raise awareness about vaccines and promote vaccinations.
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A key resource of the new Vaccine Central site is an immunization assessment tool. |
Rite Aid said Monday that at Vaccine Central, located at RiteAid.com/vaccinecentral, visitors can fill out an immunization evaluation, track their personal immunization history, and find other educational resources on vaccinations.
Rite Aid pharmacists, all of whom are certified immunizers, are available to consult with customers and answer any vaccination questions.
"Our new immunization assessment tool puts important resources like vaccine recommendations, information about vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization records right at the fingertips of consumers, helping them to make important health care decisions for themselves and their families, now and in the future," Robert Thompson, executive vice president of pharmacy at Rite Aid, said in a statement.
An Ipsos survey conducted for Rite Aid and National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) found that many U.S. women don’t think they’re up to date on immunizations to protect against many preventable diseases.
According to the telephone poll of 1,000 women ages 26 to 74, 70% of respondents reported getting at least one vaccination in the last five years to prevent disease, with most women citing flu and tetanus vaccines. When asked about other common vaccines, some of which are recommended only for targeted age groups, most women said they weren’t up to date.
Sixty percent of women said they intend to receive a vaccination in the next five years. The vaccine-preventable diseases women saw as the most serious threats to their health included influenza (44%), pneumonia (26%) and shingles (20%).
Although 44% saw flu as a serious health threat over the next five years, the survey found that 49% of women don’t plan to get a flu vaccine in that same time frame, indicating that the perceived risk does not necessarily align with vaccination behavior. The misconception that a flu shot causes the flu was the most common response (28%) about why women didn’t get vaccinated for the flu.
"At a time when vaccine-preventable diseases like flu, shingles, whooping cough and measles are highly visible in the media around the country, this survey supports what we as community pharmacists already knew, that there is clearly a need to educate consumers and raise awareness about the importance of vaccinations," Thompson noted.
Of those polled, 79% said they would find an immunization evaluation from a pharmacy helpful. More than 25% of women who reported receiving a flu vaccine in the past year did so at a drug store. Also, 29% consult their pharmacists about infectious diseases, vaccines, and immunizations.
"Education and prevention are central to the NFID mission," stated Marla Dalton, NFID executive director. "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up to 50,000 adults die from vaccine-preventable diseases in the U.S. every year. It is important for adults to understand which vaccines are recommended for them and when. Any tool that helps consumers in this process is a valuable asset to public health."
