One of the key determinants of health and wellbeing for adolescents is the utilization of preventive health services. While adolescents are generally healthy, public health officials warn that access to health insurance, preventive care, and proper health education are vital to experiencing continued health and wellbeing throughout the life course. Despite the noted importance of preventive care in adolescence, social disparities continue to exist. Given that racial and ethnic minorities and those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are less likely to have health insurance coverage, use preventive health services, and follow the recommended immunization schedule, this dissertation focuses on an important aspect of adolescent preventive health care services: vaccinations. Specifically, this study examines race and ethnic specific trends in meningococcal and tetanus, diphtheria, & acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccination coverage among adolescents in the United States. Understanding such trends could help providers determine the most effective strategies for immunizing adolescents from different racial/ethnic backgrounds, especially as they age into adulthood, as well as reduce the overall impact of vaccine preventable diseases on households and communities. Using provider reported vaccination histories from the National Immunization Survey-Teen, 2008-2016, this dissertation estimates a series of binary logistic regressions to model racial and ethnic trends in meningococcal and Tdap vaccination coverage among U.S. adolescents (n = 155,461) over a nine-year period. I find that the distribution of meningococcal and Tdap vaccinations among adolescents varies by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic adolescents tend to display higher odds of vaccination relative to White adolescents. These increased rates suggest a racial/ethnic minority advantage that, at least among Hispanics, is reminiscent of the “Hispanic paradox.” These results further suggest that racial and ethnic disparities in adolescent vaccination persist. Moving forward, race and ethnic specific trends highlight the need for targeted interventions to reduce disparities as well as continued efforts to increase the overall rate of adolescent vaccination, as adolescents remain the least vaccinated demographic age group in pre-adulthood. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 28, 2018. / Adolescent health, Health disparities, Race and ethnicity, Vaccination / Includes bibliographical references. / Amy M. Burdette, Professor Directing Dissertation; Chris J. Coutts, University Representative; Miles G. Taylor, Committee Member; John R. Taylor, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_647316 |
| Contributors | Webb, Noah S. (author), Burdette, Amy M. (professor directing dissertation), Coutts, Christopher (university representative), Taylor, Miles G., 1976- (committee member), Taylor, John (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Social Sciences and Public Policy (degree granting college), Department of Sociology (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (100 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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