Flu Vaccine Intervention Pilot Presented at UK Public Health Science Conference 2024

A pilot abstract on increasing uptake of Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccination in two-year-olds was presented by CTM Principal Researcher, Dr Megan Elliott, at the November conference last year.

Uptake of the Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV), which protects two-year-old children against influenza and serious illness, is sub-optimal across Wales, and below Welsh Government targets. The aim of the CTM pilot was to investigate the impact of a personalised appointment letter on the uptake of the vaccine in a selection of GP practices.

The conference UK Public Health Science: A National Conference Dedicated to New Research in UK Public Health was held in Cardiff on 29 November 2024. This annual conference showcases leading, innovative public health research from across the UK and Ireland with accepted submissions published online by The Lancet. The conference brought together researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and experts by experience to share and discuss contemporary issues, perspectives, and challenges in public health science and explore their impacts for practice, policy, health services, and research.

Dr Megan Elliott, Principal Researcher (Public Health), gave a brief presentation of the poster during a chaired session which generated interest and questions from the audience.

Dr Elliott commented: “The pilot suggested that sending appointment letters may be an effective way of increasing vaccination uptake amongst two-year-old children. The results and recommendations were shared with the CTM primary care and specialist immunisation teams, who can incorporate these findings in their approaches to increasing vaccination uptake in the future.

As a pilot team we will continue to look for opportunities to promote this work and future opportunities to undertake research in this area.”

Read the full abstract on the Lancet website.

10/02/2025