Interventions to Promote Seasonal Influenza Vaccinations among Healthcare Workers

Research Gaps

What are Research Gaps?

Prior to and during the literature review and data analysis, the review team and the Community Preventive Services Task Force attempt to address the key questions of what interventions work, for whom, under what conditions, and at what cost. Lack of sufficient information often leaves one or more of these questions unanswered. The Community Guide refers to these as "research gaps." Research gaps can be pulled together in the form of a basic set of questions to inform a research agenda for those in the field.

Identified Research Gaps

Although the body of evidence is strong, the field would benefit from research into the following questions:

• How do the observed successes in large hospitals and long-term care facilities translate to coalitions of smaller healthcare facilities that may share health promotion resources or family practice clinics that operate on their own?
• In what ways do current interventions with on-site, no-cost, actively promoted influenza vaccinations create, add to, reduce, or eliminate disparities among sub-groups of HCP?
• What additional barriers should implementers address to achieve influenza vaccination coverage of greater than 90% among HCP?

Finally, as was shown in the review for general worksites, the overall body of knowledge for off-site, promoted interventions is weak. With only one study with small and non-significant effect measure, in spite of the study’s use of rigorous methods, in the body of literature that analyzed this approach, we were unable to conclude on its effectiveness.