Association of Presence of a School Nurse With Increased Sixth-Grade Immunization Rates in Low-Income Arizona Schools in 2014-2015.
Autor: McCullough, J. Mac; Sunenshine, Rebecca; Rusinak, Ramona; Mead, Patty; England, Bob
Publication year: 2020
The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses
issn:1546-8364 1059-8405
doi: 10.1177/1059840518824639
Abstract:
School nurses often play large roles in implementation of school vaccination requirements aimed at controlling the spread of communicable disease. We analyzed the association between the presence of a school nurse and school-level vaccination rates in Arizona. Using school-level data from Arizona sixth-grade schools (n = 749), we regressed average sixth-grade school-level immunization rates on presence of a school nurse (registered nurse [RN] or licensed practical nurse [LPN]) and school-level socioeconomic status (SES), controlling for other school- and district-level characteristics. Schools with a nurse had higher overall vaccination rates than those without a nurse (96.1% vs. 95.0%, p < .01). For schools in the lowest SES quartile, the presence of a school nurse was associated with approximately 2 percentage point higher immunization rates. These findings add to the growing literature that defines the impact of school nurses on student health status and outcomes, emphasizing the value of school nurses, especially in lower SES schools. Language: eng Rights: Pmid: 30669932 Tags: Humans; Social Class; Regression Analysis; Poverty; health disparities; *Schools; immunizations; *School Nursing; administration/management; Arizona/epidemiology; elementary; Immunization/*statistics & numerical data; quantitative research; Vaccination Coverage/*statistics & numerical data Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30669932/
