The flu is an easily preventable disease; the vaccine has about a 70 to 90% success rate. However, the flu leads the nation as the most expensive preventable disease. Experts have speculated that the flu costs the U.S. about 5.8 billion dollars a year in medical costs and the lost productivity when workers get the flu.

 

For my original work I would like to explore how people make the decision on whether or not to receive the flu vaccination. My research this year revealed that less than half of adults are vaccinated and only about 60% of children are vaccinated. I would like to use my original work to study the reasons why people don’t get vaccinated in Reedy High school and the Frisco community. I would like to know the leading reason, and whether or not these are reasons that can be fixed. Using this information, I would then like to develop a plan for making the vaccine more accessible and appealing. Hopefully, increasing the accessibility of the vaccine will increase the amount of people vaccinated and therefore save the nation money and improve national health.

 

In order to complete my original work, I would divide it into two parts. The first being the collection of data and the second being the actual plan. To collect data I plan to make a google form which asks whether or not the survey taker has gotten the vaccine, and why or why not. I will list a few choices for why to choose from, as well as an “other” option. The collection of data should be a wide enough range of people to represent the entire population of Frisco and Reedy. I plan to contact a specialist on surveys to learn how to make the process as efficient and reliable as possible. The plan will be based heavily on my analysis of the data collection, so it will be a bit harder to plan for. I will likely have to contact flu specialists or workers at the CDC as well as work with my mentor to develop a plan that makes sense. Hopefully, the plan will be well developed enough to go beyond ISM.

 

I hope to use this project to understand why so few people bother to be vaccinated against the flu, and develop a plan that would encourage more people to be vaccinated. If a larger percentage of the population is vaccinated, then the nation will save money and national health will be improved. I will use skills of analysis and problem solving to create a solution to an actual problem. I will create a solid product and conduct research. I hope my original work will be worthwhile and well done.