Message Fatigue and COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Uptake in the United States.

Dissemination of public health information plays an essential role in communicable disease control and prevention. However, widespread and repeated messaging could become counterproductive if it leads to avoidance and disengagement due to message fatigue. Americans have been inundated with accurate and inaccurate COVID-19 information from myriad sources since the start of the pandemic. Using the health belief model (HBM) as a guiding framework, this study examines COVID-19-related message fatigue among adults in the United States who have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and the association between message fatigue and COVID-19 booster uptake and intentions. A special survey module of The COVID States Project was fielded between August and September 2022 (n = 16,546). Results showed moderately high levels of message fatigue among vaccinated individuals. Message fatigue was negatively associated with the likelihood of having gotten a COVID-19 booster and intentions to do so among those who had not yet received a booster, above and beyond variance explained by the HBM constructs. These findings underscore the importance of monitoring and mitigating COVID-19-related message fatigue in encouraging the public to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination.

Analyzing Google COVID-19 Vaccine Intent Search Trends and Vaccine Readiness in the United States: Panel Data Study.

BACKGROUND: Factors such as anxiety, worry, and perceptions of insufficient knowledge about a topic motivate individuals to seek web-based health information to guide their health-related decision-making. These factors converged during the COVID-19 pandemic and were linked to COVID-19 vaccination decision-making. While research shows that web-based search relevant to COVID-19 was associated with subsequent vaccine uptake, less is known about COVID-19 vaccine intent search (which assesses vaccine availability, accessibility, and eligibility) as a signal of vaccine readiness. OBJECTIVE: To increase knowledge about vaccine intent search as a signal of vaccine readiness, we investigated the relationship between COVID-19 vaccine readiness and COVID-19 vaccine intent relative search volume on Google. METHODS: We compiled panel data from several data sources in all US counties between January 2021 and April 2023, a time during which those with primary COVID-19 vaccinations increased from <57,000 to >230 million adults. We estimated a random effects generalized least squares regression model with time-fixed effects to assess the relationship between county-level COVID-19 vaccine readiness and COVID-19 vaccine intent relative search volume. We controlled for health care capacity, per capita COVID-19 cases and vaccination doses administered, and sociodemographic indicators. RESULTS: The county-level proportions of unvaccinated adults who reported that they would wait and see before getting a COVID-19 vaccine were positively associated with COVID-19 vaccine intent relative search volume (ß=9.123; Z=3.59; P<.001). The county-level proportions of vaccine-enthusiast adults, adults who indicated they were either already vaccinated with a primary COVID-19 vaccine series or planned to complete the vaccine series soon, were negatively associated with COVID-19 vaccine intent relative search volume (ß=-10.232; Z=-7.94; P<.001). However, vaccine intent search was higher in counties with high proportions of people who decided to wait and see and lower in counties with high proportions of vaccine enthusiasts. CONCLUSIONS: During this period of steep increase in COVID-19 vaccination, web-based search may have signaled differences in county-level COVID-19 vaccine readiness. More vaccine intent searches occurred in high wait-and-see counties, whereas fewer vaccine intent searches occurred in high vaccine-enthusiast counties. Considering previous research that identified a relationship between vaccine intent search and subsequent vaccine uptake, these findings suggest that vaccine intent search aligned with people's transition from the wait-and-see stage to the vaccine-enthusiast stage. The findings also suggest that web-based search trends may signal localized changes in information seeking and decision-making antecedent to vaccine uptake. Changes in web-based search trends illuminate opportunities for governments and other organizations to strategically allocate resources to increase vaccine uptake. Resource use is part of the larger public policy decisions that influence vaccine uptake, such as efforts to educate the public during evolving public health crises, including future pandemics.

Investigating Physical Violence Against Classroom and Other School Personnel Using Ohio Workers' Compensation Data: 2001-2012.

This study uses workers' compensation data to explore the extent, severity, and context of violence-related injuries sustained by classroom (teachers and aides) and other personnel (e.g., administrators, education support specialists, security, custodial and maintenance workers, food workers) in Ohio's K-12 urban public schools. The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation provided access to claims filed by workers from the state's nine urban school districts from January 01, 2001 to December 31, 2012 (N = 19,508). Injury trends were explored with descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses. Approximately 25% of all claims filed were violence-related. Overall, violence-related injury rates remained relatively stable from the 2001-2002 to the 2011-2012 academic year. However, the odds of victimization for classroom personnel were 1.84 times the odds of victimization for other personnel. For both classroom and other personnel, the most commonly-sustained injuries resulting from a violent event included contusions; sprains to the neck, back, and upper or lower extremities, and open wounds. Most violence-related injuries were sustained during direct contact with students displaying escalated or aggressive behavior, or during efforts to de-escalate third-party violence. Implications of using workers' compensation data to inform workplace violence research and practice are discussed.