In a study published this month in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, UAB researchers demonstrated that a majority of undergraduates in two large introductory biology classes who initially said they would not get vaccinated changed their minds following a series of expert-led discussions in class.In a new study, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that a majority of undergraduate students who were hesitant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine changed their minds after taking part in expert-led presentations and discussions. The research was conducted during the spring 2021 semester at UAB, which ran from January through May 2021. It’s one of the first studies to look at ways to address vaccine hesitancy in students who are not majoring in a science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) field, investigators say.
The study included undergrads in two courses: BY 101, primarily for students intending to major in humanities fields, and BY 261, an introductory microbiology class for pre-nursing majors. Before the presentations, the researchers surveyed the classes about their intent to get vaccinated, as well as their opinions on the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines. Fifteen of the 98 students who agreed to participate in the study said they did not intend to get a COVID vaccine. After two active-learning discussions on the biology of viruses and vaccine basics, how COVID-19 vaccines work and how they are made, the students heard from an epidemiologist and an infectious-diseases physician treating COVID patients. After each talk, students had the opportunity to ask questions of these experts.
Following these expert-led presentations and discussions, the students were surveyed again; nine of the 15 students (60%) who initially said they would not get vaccinated had changed their minds.
More likely to perceive vaccines as safe, effective
“Our results found that our student population was more likely to perceive the COVID-19 vaccines as both safe and effective following the expert guest lectures intervention,” the researchers write in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, where their study was published in May. “Perceptions of safety and efficacy are linked to overall COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Further, students felt they could make an informed decision regarding vaccination after the completion of the module.”
Samiksha Raut, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biology, taught the two introductory biology classes and is senior author of the research study.Of the 313 students enrolled in both classes, 98 students agreed to take part in this study. In follow-up interviews with 10 students, four “explicitly mentioned that the guest lectures had a role in their decision to get vaccinated,” the researchers state.
“The need of the hour”
“I feel like scientists in general need to do more to effectively communicate science to the general public, and we have seen the results of that in the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Samiksha Raut, Ph.D., who taught the two courses and is the senior author of this research study. Incorporating contemporary issues in her introductory courses — Topics in Contemporary Biology and Introduction to Microbiology — is nothing new to Raut, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology. In previous semesters, she has addressed topics like climate change, evolution, organ donation and opioid addiction. In her classes, Raut also addresses ways to fact-check claims being made on social media and raises awareness about misinformation and disinformation.
“It’s the need of the hour,” Raut said. “This is a student population that will take one or two science classes in their college career, and they will form their view of science based on that. I feel that it is my professional duty not only to make science exciting to them but also to show them how science is actually relatable to day-to-day life.”
“This is a student population that will take one or two science classes in their college career, and they will form their view of science based on that. I feel that it is my professional duty not only to make science exciting to them but also to show them how science is actually relatable to day-to-day life.”
That is particularly true during the COVID pandemic, she adds. “By December 2020, we had produced a vaccine, and in January 2021, it was ready for widespread use — but there was so much hesitancy,” Raut said. “Before the start of the semester, my team and I were thinking about what we could do to address the pandemic via our classes, and we said, ‘We need to do something about vaccine hesitancy.’”
Study details
The first authors of this new study include Christina Morra, Ph.D., and Sarah Adkins-Jablonsky, Ph.D. Morra is a postdoctoral fellow working under Raut’s supervision through UAB’s Mentored Experiences in Research, Instruction and Teaching program in the Heersink School of Medicine at UAB. She is currently studying new approaches to active learning in STEM education under Raut’s mentorship. Adkins-Jablonsky, whose doctorate focused on the interface between arts, science and education, now is in medical school. She is a co-author with Raut on several other publications related to STEM education reform and assessment.
Spreading the word
UAB senior Derek Dang presented these research findings at the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Posters on the Hill research competition in April. Graduate student Bianca Convers presented the research as a recipient of the 2022 Joshua E. Neimark Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its annual meeting in February.
Raut and Morra taught the first two expert-led sessions: Basics of Vaccines and COVID-19: The Virus, the Disease and the Vaccines, respectively. For the other two presentations, Raut recruited Bertha Hidalgo, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health, and Ellen Eaton, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, who was in the midst of treating a wave of COVID patients at UAB Hospital during the pandemic. Both Hidalgo and Eaton held live talks on demystifying vaccine hesitancy and responded to student questions.
The positive response to those presentations suggests the value of further work in this area, the researchers said in their paper. “Future research should explore the experiences of non-majors and guest lectures, particularly as they relate to vaccination and vaccine concerns,” they wrote. Raut hopes to collaborate with other researchers across UAB’s campus to identify ways to address vaccine hesitancy. “There is an incredibly rich diversity of work being done here at UAB,” Raut said. “There is so much more that we need to do with vaccine hesitancy, and I am actively looking forward to collaborating with individuals engaged with similar interests at UAB.”
In addition to Raut, Morra and Adkins-Jablonsky, co-authors of the paper, titled “Expert-led Module Improves Non-STEM Undergraduate Perception of and Willingness to Receive COVID-19 Vaccines,” include M. Elizabeth Barnes, Obadiah J. Pirlo, Sloan E. Almehmi, Bianca J. Convers, Derek L. Dang, Michael L. Howell and Ryleigh Fleming. Dang presented these research findings at the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Posters on the Hill research competition in April, and Bianca Convers presented the research as a recipient of the 2022 Joshua E. Neimark Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science at its annual meeting in February.