The Candidate: Dr. Glanz is a junior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO) and an Instructor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCDHSC). He has a PhD in epidemiology and a Masters Degree in biostatistics. He currently conducts vaccine safety research and develops epidemiologic methods for assessing vaccine safety. His long term goal is to study vaccination acceptance in parents with young children. Dr. Glanz plans to develop practical interventions designed to increase immunization rates in populations of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.

The Environment: Dr. Glanz is based at KPCO in the Clinical Research Unit (CRU). The CRU consists of over 100 staff and investigators devoted to conducting high quality health care research. Dr. Glanz's primary mentor is Dr. Richard Hamman, the Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, UCDHSC. Dr. Hamman is an expert in epidemiologic methodology and intervention design and has strong collaborative ties to the KPCO CRU. Dr. Glanz also has strong working relationships with the other members of his mentorship team, who have combined expertise in epidemiology, behavioral research, intervention design, and translation of research into practice.

The Research: Vaccine acceptance is a critical national health care concern and an NIAID priority. Current data suggests that parental vaccine refusal rates and certain vaccine preventable diseases, such as whooping cough (pertussis), are on the rise in the US. The risks associated with vaccine refusal are not well defined, and interventions designed to increase vaccination rates are lacking. Using the KPCO clinical databases, a cohort will be assembled to assess the risk of pertussis in children of parents who refuse childhood pertussis vaccinations. In addition, the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about immunizations will be assessed in the following populations: parents who vaccinate their children, parents who refuse childhood vaccinations, and health care providers. This information will be used to design an intervention that could be implemented in a pediatric care setting. The goal of the intervention is to educate parents about the safety and effectiveness of routine immunizations and increase immunization rates over time. An effective intervention would help reduce pertussis infection rates in children.

K01AI073295

2007-05-15

2012-04-30